PARTC 


CRIMIN 


LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


PRESENTED  BY 
MISS   PEARL  CHASE 


gARTICEPS  CR1MINIS 

THE  STORY   OF  A  CALIFORNIA 
RABBIT  DRIVE 


BY 

ERVIN   S.    CHAPMAN,    D.D.,    LL.D. 

Author  of  "  The  Czolgosz  of  Trade  and  Commerce,"  "A  Stainless  Flag"   etc. 


ILLUSTRATED  BY 
HARRY   GRAYDON   PARTLOW 


NEW  YORK          CHICAGO          TORONTO 

Fleming       H.       Revell       Company 

LONDON  AND  EDINBURGH 


Copyright,  1910,  by 
ERVIN   S.   CHAPMAN 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago :  80  Wabash  Avenue 
Toronto  :  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London :  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:  100  Princes  Street 


TO 

rin  (Eljapman 

ONE    OF    THE    TWENTY    MILLION 


CHAPTER  I. 


?fTTjHERE  are  many  large 
sections  of  California  in 
which  the  rabbit  is  re- 
garded as  an  intolerable 
pest.  So  numerous  and 
voracious  are  they  as  to 
make  impossible  the  successful  prosecu- 
tion of  any  branch  of  agriculture.  With 
ravenous  appetite  they  girdle  every  fruit 
tree  and  fruit-bearing  vine  and  consume 
every  blade  of  grass  and  every  green  leaf 
within  their  reach.  In  those  portions  of 
the  state  where  rabbits  thus  abound  it  has 
been  found  necessary  occasionally  to  en- 
gage in  concentrated  movements  for  the 
destruction  of  these  little  animals. 

The  number  of  rabbits  is  so  great  and 


\ 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

their  increase  is  so  rapid  that  the  ordi- 
nary methods  of  trapping,  shooting  and 
poisoning  are  of  but  little  value.  The 
ranchmen,  therefore,  unite  in  what  are 
known  as  "Rabbit  Drives"  to  accomplish 
the  wholesale  slaughter  of  these  obstacles 
to  agricultural  pursuits.  The  residents 
of  a  large  section  of  country  usually  join 
in  one  of  these  rabbit  drives. 

FIELD  SELECTED  AND  PREPARED. 

At  a  carefully  chosen  place  on  the 
plain  a  rabbit-tight  corral  of  a  half -acre, 
more  or  less,  in  area,  is  constructed  with 
an  opening  or  door  at  one  side.  This 
corral  is  located  at  a  point  most  favorable 
to  the  accomplishment  of  large  results, 
irrespective  of  the  points  of  the  compass, 
but  to  aid  in  making  clear  this  descrip- 
tion we  will  suppose  the  corral  is  located 
at  the  east  side  and  midway  between  the 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

northern  and  southern  boundary  of  the 
section  of  country  over  which  the  opera- 
tions are  to  be  conducted,  and  that  the 
corral  door  faces  the  west.  At  the  north 


side  of  this  door  the  corral  fence  turns 
abruptly  and  extends  in  a  northwesterly 
direction  from  a  half  mile  to  two  or  three 
times  that  distance  according  to  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  movement.  At  the  south 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

side  of  the  door  also,  the  fence  turns  and 
extends  in  a  southwesterly  direction  at 
the  same  angle  and  distance  as  the  other. 
These  two  out-reaching  fences  marking 
the  boundary  of  a  fan-shaped  tract  of 
many  hundreds  of  acres  of  rabbit- 
infested  territory  resemble  two  wide- 
spread welcoming  arms. 

THE   RABBIT   DRIVERS. 

Several  miles  west  of  the  corral  is 
formed  a  semi-circular  cordon  of  men 
with  its  concave  side  toward  the  corral, 
and  its  two  ends  extending  out  to  the 
north  and  south  and  wider  apart  than  are 
the  two  western  ends  of  the  outreaching 
corral  fences.  Several  hundred  men  are 
sometimes  formed  into  such  a  cordon  and 
at  a  given  signal  all  proceed  at  a  uniform 
rate  of  speed  toward  the  corral,  beating 
bushes,  pans  and  drums,  tooting  horns, 


s  a 
<  H 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


and  making  all  possible  tumult  without 
the  aid  of  dogs  or  firearms,  and  thus  driv- 
ing the  affrighted  bunnies  toward  the 
distant  corral. 

THE  TIGHTENING  CORDON. 

As  they  advance,  the  two  ends  of  this 
cordon  overlap  the  two  ends  of  the  corral 
fences  to  avoid  the  danger  of  the  escape 
of  the  fleeing  and  fleet-footed  bunnies. 
When  this  cordon  forms  a  junction  with 
the  corral  fences  the  rabbits  are  enclosed 
— by  the  corral,  the  fences  and  the  cor- 
don of  men.  And,  as  amid  a  cloud  of 
dust  they  hasten  toward  the  wide-open 
door  of  their  carefully  constructed  prison, 
they  resemble  a  vast  flock  of  sheep  and 
lambs  playfully  seeking  the  protecting 
enclosure  of  their  beloved  fold.  When 
at  length  the  rabbits  are  all  within  the 
corral,  the  door  is  closed  and  men  leap 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

over  the  fence  and  heartlessly  club  them 
all  to  death.  Not  one  beautiful  bunny 
which  enters  the  corral  is  permitted  to 
escape  this  wholesale  and  heartless 
slaughter. 

STORY  REPEATED  AND  APPLIED. 

Aided  by  the  accompanying  illustra- 
tions I  will  endeavor,  with  greater  full- 
ness and  as  clearly  as  possible,  to  explain 
in  detail  some  of  thethrillingly  interesting 
features  of  a  successful  rabbit  drive.  The 
story  should  be  read  in  its  entirety  that 
its  full  significance  may  be  understood 
and  realized. 

However  necessary  the  rabbit  drives 
may  be,  we  cannot  refrain  from  a  feeling 
of  tender  pity  for  the  soft-furred  little 
bunnies  that  are  thus  driven  to  cruel 
slaughter.  When  they  realize  their  peril 
and  utter  helplessness,  their  large,  f  riend- 

6 


\ 


\ 


ly  eyes  assume  a  glassy  glare  of  fright- 
ened protest  against  their  doom,  and 
move  us  with  a  strong  desire  to  rush  to 
their  deliverance. 

And  if  those  bunnies  were  boys,  who 
were  thus  being  sacrificed,  our  zeal  for 
their  deliverance  would  overleap  all  re- 
straint, and  the  civilized  world  would  rise 
up  and  with  vehement  indignation  de- 
mand and  secure  the  cessation  of  such 
barbarities. 

STARTLING   ANALOGY. 

Yet,  a  rabbit  drive,  with  all  its  acces- 
sories and  revolting  results,  is  a  startling 
illustration  of  what  the  beverage  liquor 
traffic  is  accomplishing  upon  the  boyhood 
of  the  nation.  If  we  regard  the  corral 
into  which  the  rabbits  are  driven  as  an 
illustration  of  the  condition  of  those  who 
have  become  helpless  inebriates,  each  flee- 
ing bunny  becomes  in  our  thought  a  dar- 

7 


JteFiR, 

t 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


ling  boy  rushing  to  a  drunkard's  doom. 
We  must  not  shudder  and  shrink  from 
the  contemplation  of  this  startling  anal- 
ogy. Possibly  we  thus  may  bring  to  our 
own  hearts  temporary  relief,  but  it  is 
the  relief  which  cowards  seek  and  which 
true  men  and  women  heroically  refuse. 

SINFUL   SLUMBER. 

Many  have  turned  and  fled  from  the 
scene  when  the  rabbit  drive  they  had  come 
to  witness  reached  its  revolting  stages, 
but  the  rabbit  drive  went  on  to  its  tragic 
end.  And  the  boy  drive  now  in  progress 
will  not  stop  because  we  refuse  to  recog- 
nize its  existence  or  to  listen  to  the  lesson 
which  it  teaches.  We  may  aid  to  stop  it 
if  we  will  awaken  to  a  realization  of  its 
existence  and  of  its  unspeakable  enormi- 
ties. I  trust  the  reader  will  aid  me  by 
close  attention  and  true  sympathy  while 

8 


f~s*J$3£<& 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

I  point  out  the  startling  resemblances  be- 
tween the  details  of  a  successful  rabbit 
drive,  as  I  shall  describe  it,  and  the  details 
of  the  processes  by  which  so  many  of  our 
buoyant  youth  are  hurried  to  a  dismal 
destiny. 

The  rabbit  drive  and  the  boy  drive! 
The  one  illustrates  the  other.  Some  of 
their  features  are  startlingly  similar.  Be- 
tween others  there  is  an  equally  striking 
dissimilarity. 

DISSIMILAR   FEATURES. 

RABBIT    DRIVES    ALWAYS    BEGIN    WITH    AN 
EMPTY   CORRAL. 

When  the  long  cordon  of  men  is 
formed  and  the  signal  to  begin  the  drive 
is  heard,  not  one  bright-eyed  bunnie  is 
within  the  distant  enclosure  which  soon 
will  become  to  many  of  them  a  bastile  for 

9 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

their  ghastly  execution.  But  the  drunk- 
ard's corral — the  condition  of  helpless  in- 
ebriety which  in  this  analo'gy  the  rabbit 
corral  is  made  to  represent — is  ever  full 
of  its  dejected  and  degraded  inmates. 
They  throng  the  streets  of  our  great  cit- 
ies and  by  the  million  crowd  into  the 
haunts  of  vice  and  the  realm  of  indigence 
and  want.  Brief  is  their  stay  within  that 
realm,  for  their  condition  marks  the 
nearing  of  their  journey's  end,  and  their 
passing  seems  never  to  diminish  the  num- 
bers of  this  wrecked  and  ruined  multitude. 

BABBIT  DRIVE  OF  SHORT  DURATION. 

It  continues  only  a  few  fleeting  hours 
and  then  the  work  of  rabbit  driving  and 
of  rabbit  slaughter  will  not  be  again  re- 
sumed for  months  or  years,  and  perhaps 
never  again  in  that  locality.  But  the  boy 
drive  never  ceases.  As  constant  as  the 
10 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


flight  of  time  is  the  movement  of  the 
countless  throng  whose  path  of  sunny 
youth  becomes  the  rocky  road  to  wretch- 
edness and  ruin.  The  evening  finds  the 
lovely  lad  nearer  his  dreadful  destiny 
than  when  the  morning  dawned.  And 
while  night's  sable  curtains  hang  in  gen- 
erous wealth  about  his  cot,  the  space  is 
steadily  diminishing  between  his  sleeping 
pillow  and  his  doom. 

He  knows  no  solitude  or  seclusion,  for 
like  his  noonday  shadow  a  multitude  is 
ever  with  him,  each  one  like  himself  con- 
stantly facing  and  approaching  the 
gloom  of  nameless  night.  The  rabbit 
drive  is  for  a  single  day,  but  through  the 
ceaseless  centuries  the  boy  drive  contin- 
ues its  mad  and  murderous  activity.  And 
not  limited  as  is  the  rabbit  drive  to  the 
area  of  a  few  fertile  fields,  but  upon  a 
scale  vast  as  the  extent  of  civilization 


ws-  *%      a     -j"  W    ^ '< 

-  •**•  *  •;  ft  '-€  ^i J! 

e&itflL^Jl^i&f 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

are    the    activities    of   this    unspeakable 
barbarity. 

RABBIT  DRIVES  PROTECTIVE. 

Cruel  as  the  rabbit  drive  may  seem  to 
be,  it  always  is  conducted  for  the  protec- 
tion of  important  human  interests.  But 
the  boy  drive  is  alike  destructive  of  the 
manhood  and  the  material  prosperity  of 
the  nation.  Fruitful  orchards  and  vine- 
yards, grassy  meadows  and  golden  har- 
vests, with  homes  made  bright  and  happy 
by  their  needed  blessings  are  the  after- 
math of  a  necessary  and  successful  rabbit 
drive.  But  in  the  wake  of  the  boy  drive 
material  ruin  is  always  found. 

SIMILAR  FEATURES. 

If  a  rabbit  drive  were   planned   and 
conducted  for  the  sole  purpose  of  illus- 
trating the  processes  by  which  the  ruin 
12 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

of  bright  and  promising  boys  is  accom- 
plished, the  two  proceedings  could  not 
more  nearly  be  alike.  Each  is  of 

VAST   DIMENSIONS. 

A  rabbit  drive  is  not  usually  regarded 
as  successful  or  satisfactory  unless  its 
furry  victims  are  numbered  by  the  thou- 
sands. As  many  as  twenty  thousand 
bunnies  have  been  corraled  and  killed  at 
a  single  drive  during  the  hours  of  one 
working  day.  Upon  an  extended  field 
swept  by  the  cordon  of  men  a  much  larger 
number  of  rabbits  are  found,  some  of 
which  escape,  and  that  countless  throng 
upon  that  field  reminds  us  of  the  twenty 
million  American  lads  from  five  to 
nineteen  years  of  age  scattered  over 
those  portions  of  our  country  where  influ-  ..,..,*' 
ences  more  potent  than  are  those  engaged  ^Wg 
in  an  enthusiastic  rabbit  drive,  are,  with  .^ 


PAETICEPS  CRIMINIS 

tremendous  force,  pressing  them  nearer 
and  still  nearer  to  the  darkness  that  knows 
no  day. 

Twenty  thousand  bunnies  slain  during 
a  few  frolicsome  hours!  Twenty  million 
boys  diligently  sought,  for  a  far  more 
savage  slaughter.  Those  twenty  million 
boys,  if  arranged  three  feet  apart,  as  they 
appear  in  the  school  yard  when  awaiting 
the  call  to  their  class  rooms,  would  fill  to 
its  limit  a  field  of  more  than  4,132  acres. 
A  square  mile  of  boys!  Yes,  more  than 
six  square  miles — a  solid  mass  of  bust- 
ling, buoyant  boyhood  extending  over  an 
area  of  three  and  one- fourth  miles  in 
length  by  two  miles  in  width.  Arranged 
in  single  file  three  feet  apart,  as  if 
marching  in  parade,  they  would  make  an 
army  more  than  11,363  miles  in  length. 
Marching  at  the  rate  of  three  miles  per 
hour  for  eight  hours  per  day  it  would 

14 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

require  474  days  for  that  tremendous 
army  to  pass  a  given  point.  Nearly 
eighteen  months  would  be  required  to 
mobilize  that  single-column  army  to  their 
places  in  the  thousands  of  broad  acres. 

As  in  our  thoughts  we  view  those  more 
than  four  thousand  acres  of  exuberant 
youth  we  cannot  overlook  the  limitless 
affection  which  holds  them  in  its  warmth 
and  tenderness,  nor  the  infinite  and 
hoped-for  possibilities  of  those  twenty 
million  boys.  And  that  is  the  quarry  the 
game-hunters  are  seeking!  Around  that 
field  the  cordon  of  Satanic  influences  is 
extended.  Over  that  field  the  boy  drive 
is  now  in  active  operation,  and  from  that 
field,  where  all  is  now  so  glad  and  gay, 
many  will  be  borne  to  vagrancy  and  vice 
as  the  playful  bunnies  are  driven  from 
their  joyous  freedom  to  their  awful 
doom.  Yes,  "many,"  very,  very  many, 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


more  by  far  than  our  faltering  faith 
causes  our  unwilling  hearts  to  realize, 
more  than  three  hundred  during  the  fleet- 
ing hours  of  one  brief  day  are  swept,  as 
with  a  tempest,  into  the  engulfing  vortex 
of  despair.  Three  hundred  boys  during 
each  and  every  day!  Twenty  thousand 
boys  in  ten  weeks  and  then  twenty  thou- 
sand more  during  a  like  period  until  one 
hundred  thousand  boys,  while  the  year 
goes  by,  yield  to  the  potential  agency  by 
which  they  are  "driven  out  of  the  world." 

NOT  ENTICED,  BUT  DRIVEN. 

Yes,  "driven"!  It  is  a  rabbit  drive  I 
am  describing,  not  a  trap  nor  snare,  nor 
covered  pitfall  in  which  the  rabbits  may 
through  lack  of  prudence  be  engulfed. 
The  rabbits  are  driven  into  the  corral, 
and  by  a  tremendous  pressure  our  na- 
tion's boyhood  is  being  forced  into  the 

16 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

excessive  and  destructive  use  of  ardent 
spirits.  If 'left  wholly  to  their  own  free 
choice,  without  the  alluring  prospects  of 
securing  food,  very  few,  if  any,  of  the 
coy  and  careful  little  bunnies  would  ever 
enter  the  strong  enclosure  so  skillfully 
constructed  for  their  imprisonment.  But 
they  are  not  left  free  to  the  exercise  of 
their  voluntary  choice.  They  are  driven 
to  a  destiny  they  would  never  voluntarily 
secure.  Human  wisdom,  skill  and  effort 
are  vigorously  employed  to  overcome 
their  weaker  will  and  literally  to  drive 
them  into  the  corral.  No  obstacle  is  per- 
mitted between  them  and  that  prison  pen, 
no  man  nor  beast  nor  frightening  sound 
to  make  difficult  or  doubtful  their  rapid 
movements  toward  their  bastile's  open 
door. 

The  mission  of  government,  as  Glad- 
stone tells  us,  is  "to  make  it  easy  to  do 

17 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


right  and  difficult  to  do  wrong,"  but  the 
first  work  of  the  boy  drive  is  to  make  it 
as  easy  as  possible  to  do  wrong.  From 
the  intended  victim's  mind  all  apprehen- 
sion of  danger  is  carefully  removed. 
Warning  voices  that  might  affright  him 
from  the  path  of  peril  are  not  permitted 
to  be  heard,  having  been  hushed  to  silence 
by  the  flatterer's  assuring  tones.  His 
own  nobler  nature  is  invoked  to  banish 
prudential  fear.  He  is  made  to  regard 
himself  as  too  well  poised  and  self-suffi- 
cient ever  to  become  a  victim  of  the  flow- 
ing bowl.  Men  addicted  to  their  cups 
and  far  advanced  toward  the  yawning 
gateway  of  the  drunkard's  realm  of  utter 
helplessness  are  still  held  in  such  high 
repute  as  to  lure  the  confiding  lad  to  fol- 
low in  their  footsteps,  just  as  the  bunnies 
that  are  fleeing  toward  their  doom  en- 
courage others  to  do  the  same.  ,The  rab- 

18 


A  CALIFORNIA  BABBIT  DRIVE 


bits  which  have  not  yet  begun  their  move- 
ment toward  their  awaiting  prison  walls 
are  started  on  that  fatal  road  by  their 
fellow  bunnies  whose  confident  advance  in 
that  direction  gives  assurance  that  the  way 
is  safe.  And  just  as  the  masters  of  the 
fatal  rabbit  drive  spare  no  pains  to  cause 
the  free  and  roaming  bunnies  to  believe 
the  noiseless  plain  extending  toward  the 
distant  and  unobserved  corral  is  free 
from  peril,  so  our  confiding  youth  are 
assured  and  reassured  that  no  voracious 
lions  of  controlling  appetite  lurk  along 
the  way  of  a  moderate  use  of  intoxicating 
drinks.  And  all  who  aid  in  producing 
that  conviction  contribute  to  the  success 
of  the  barbarous  boy  drive,  the  unspeak- 
able iniquity  of  every  community  in 
which  it  has  existence. 


CHAPTER  II. 


ALL  FACES  TOWARD  THE  CORRAL. 

LL  things  are  now  in 
readiness,  but  the  rabhit 
drive  will  not  begin  until 
the  signal  for  activity  is 
heard.  The  unsuspect- 
ing bunnies  skip  and  play 
among  the  sheltering  shrubs  and  bask  or 
browse  at  will.  A  wondrous  change  will 
soon  sweep  over  this  enchanting  scene, 
and  before  it  comes  let  us  gaze  in  mute 
reflection  on  this  wide  and  peaceful  land- 
scape. 

Standing  south  of  the  southernmost 
fence  and  midway  between  the  corral  and 
the  ends  of  the  outspreading  fences  we 
look  eastward  and  trace  the  dim  but 

20 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


shapely  outlines  of  the  strong  corral,  and 
from  its  open  western  door  we  see  the  two 
long  lines  of  fences  extending  westward 
and  spreading  wide  apart  like  a  loving 
mother's  arms  of  holy  welcome.  Now 
turn  the  eye  toward  the  western  limit  of 
this  quiet  plain  and  see  that  long  crescen- 
tic  cordon  of  standing  men  at  equal  dis- 
tance from  each  other,  and  all  with  faces 
toward  the  rising  sun.  Eastward  from 
that  cordon  thousands  of  browsing  bun- 
nies are  moving  free  as  the  air  they 
breathe  and  peaceful  as  the  heavenly  light 
by  which  they  are  enswathed.  The  faces 
and  the  movements  of  those  bunnies  are 
in  all  directions.  Not  one  of  all  that  free 
and  joyous  throng  suspects  that  very  soonj 
he  will  be  madly  rushing  to  his  ruin,  and 
that  ere  the  shadows  of  the  night  shall 
fall  he  will  be  the  helpless  victim  of  his 
unrelenting  foes.  To  the  unsuspecting 

21 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

human   mind   no   evidence   appears   that 
such  will  be  the  case. 

THE  SIGNAL  AND  RESPONSE. 

But  the  appointed  time  has  come  and 
over  all  that  plain  the  clarion  call  is  heard. 
The  bunnies  heed  it  not,  but  to  the  sturdy 
ranchmen  in  that  extended  cordon  it  is  a 
signal  for  activity  and  it  is  answered  by 
a  shout  so  long  and  loud  and  fierce  that 
every  craggy  shrub,  and  every  tuft  of 
withered  grass  seems  to  have  found  "the 
voice  of  many  waters"  and  the  violence 
of  the  ocean's  fiercest  storm.  Continuous 
and  terrible  as  is  the  tempest's  ceaseless 
roar,  that  shout  is  heard  mingling  with 
the  din  and  uproar  of  the  resounding 
pans  and  drums  and  all  the  tumult  that 
human  skill  and  cunning  can  produce. 
With  the  barbaric  tumult  the  long  cordon 
of  men  advances  with  slow  and  measured 
22 


H 
ft 
| 

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H  CJ 

o 

^  ffi 

w  H 


A  CALIFORNIA -RABBIT  DRIVE 


tread,  and  with  strong  and  heavy  clubs 
they  beat  with  violence  every  shrub  and 
bush  that  stands  within  their  reach.  The 
limit  of  their  ability  is  €ae  limit  of  the  ter- 
rific tumult  they  produce  and  the  af- 
frighted bunnies  flee,  but  all  with  faces 
turned,  as  are  the  faces  of  their  foes, 
toward  the  strong  enclosure  which  is 
ready  to  receive  them. 

The  rabbit  drive  has  now  begun  and 
with  all  the  force  of  vigorous  and  deter- 
mined human  effort  the  rabbits  are  being 
hastened  onward  to  the  corral.  As  truly 
as  if  borne  along  by  a  resistless  force 
those  timid,  frightened,  little  creatures 
are  by  the  threatening  tumult  of  that 
advancing  human  cordon  compelled 
through  fear  to  flee  in  terror  from  their 
foes.  In  their  ignorance  and  fright  they 
have  not  power  to  do  otherwise  than  to 
flee.  They  are  not  persuaded,  they  are 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


not  enticed,  they  are  literally  driven  to- 
ward and  into  the  corral.  Not  one  of  all 
their  number  has  felt  the  touch  of  any 
weapon  in  the  hands  of  their  pursuers, 
but  there  has  been  used  a  force  quite  as 
potential  as  a  blow — a  force  which  they 
were  powerless  to  resist  and  to  which, 
with  rare  exceptions,  they  have  promptly 
yielded. 

CURSED  BY  COMPULSION. 

I  am  pressing  this  fact,  I  am  holding 
it  thus  protractedly  before  the  reader  that 
all  may  feel  its  force  when  it  is  made  to 
illustrate  the  processes  by  which  the  most 
lovely  and  promising  boys,  as  they  ad- 
vance to  the  estate  of  manhood,  become 
helpless,  degraded  slaves  of  rum.  They 
are  driven  into  a  condition  of  degradation 
and  ruin.  As  truly  as  the  cordon  of 
robust,  sturdy  ranchmen  drive  the  af- 

24 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


frighted  bunnies  into  the  corral,  so  truly 
do  existing  influences  combine  and  oper- 
ate to  drive  our  boys  to  drunken  degrada- 
tion and  disgrace.  Not  by  the  tumult 
which  always  attends  a  successful  rabbit 
drive,  but  by  proceedings  equally  effect- 
ive is  the  boy  drive  made  to  gather  its 
millions  from  the  first  born  of  the  land. 

COMPELLED    TO    MAKE    THE    CHOICE 
THEY  DO. 

Some  would  seek  to  put  aside  this  aw- 
ful truth  by  claiming  that  only  by  the 
exercise  of  their  own  free  choice  do  any 
find  their  way  into  the  dismal  prison 
house  of  helpless  inebriety;  that  none  are 
driven  to  the  drunkard's  doom.  With 
equal  truthfulness  and  force  it  may  be 
said  the  rabbits  are  not  driven  into  the 
imprisoning  corral ;  they  choose  to  go  and 
none  but  they  can  be  held  responsible  for 

25 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

their  choice.  Yet  the  stubborn  fact  re- 
mains— they  are  driven  into  the  corral. 
It  is  a  rabbit  drive  of  which  we  are  speak- 
ing, and  while  the  bunnies  flee  in  the 
direction  of  their  own  choice,  they  are 
compelled  to  choose  the  way  that  leads 
them  to  their  prison  and  to  their  tragic 
death.  With  their  timid  natures  and  their 
meager  knowledge,  the  encircling  and 
besetting  tumult  overmasters  their  every 
inclination  save  the  one  to  flee  in  that 
direction  where  no  frightening  sounds  are 
heard.  Their  weaker  natures  are  sub- 
jected to  the  stronger  will  of  man,  and 
they  move  along  the  lines  of  his  choosing 
even  to  their  own  cruel  slaughter. 

Startlingly  true  is  all  this  when  applied 
to  our  cherished  boys.  Gruesome  and 
gloomy  the  region  of  despair  waits  for 
their  coming,  and  influences  as  potent  and 
as  active  as  is  any  band  of  determined 

26 


A  CALIFORNIA  BABBIT  DRIVE 

rabbit  drivers  are  now  at  work  hastening 
them  onward  to  that  fearful  future. 
With  human  nature  as  it  is,  and  with  con- 
ditions as  they  are,  the  nation's  boy  drive, 
as  now  conducted,  cannot  fail  to  force 
millions  of  manly  boys  to  a  most  unmanly 
close  of  life.  They  may  pursue  their 
chosen  path,  but  stronger  wills  than 
theirs,  and  influences  which  many  of  them 
are  not  able  to  resist,  are  compelling  them 
to  choose  the  path  that  leads  to  ruin. 
They  are  not  compelled  to  drink,  but  they 
are  compelled  to  choose  to  drink,  and  just 
at  that  point  where  the  course  pursued  is 
decided  upon  and  chosen,  the  ranchmen 
win  their  victory  over  the  destructive  bun- 
nies, and  evil  influences  accomplish  the 
destruction  of  our  boys.  And  whatever 
tends  to  cause  a  boy  to  choose  or  to  con- 
sent to  the  use  of  ardent  spirits  is  to  that 
boy  what  the  rabbit  driver's  efforts  are  to 
27 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

the  bunnies  he  is  seeking  to  destroy.  It 
is  driving  the  boy  to  his  ruin.  It  tends  to 
compel  his  choice  of  a  wrong  course  and 
to  encourage  him  to  pursue  that  course, 
and  in  so  doing  it  drives  him  to 
destruction. 

FAMILY  LIQUOR  DRINKING. 

is  first  among  the  agencies  that  are  influ- 
encing our  boyhood's  fatal  choice.  From 
the  cellar  and  from  the  sideboard  of  the 
home  is  borne  to  the  family  dining  table 
the  stimulating  cup  of  which  both  young 
and  old  partake.  How  can  that  suscepti- 
ble boy  refrain  from  sipping  the  luscious 
liquid  which  is  set  before  him,  against 
which  no  word  is  spoken,  and  which  he 
sees  partaken  of  so  freely  by  his  father — 
the  one  whom  he  delights  to  regard  as 
the  prince  of  sterling  manliness.  That 
imitating  lad  has  not  the  power  to  cast 
28 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

aside  the  harmful  influence  of  his  father's 
dining-room  example.  His  father  is  not 
forcing  him  to  drink,  but  by  an  influence 
which  the  boy  cannot  resist  he  is  forcing 
him  to  choose  to  drink.  In  later  years, 
when  character  is  formed,  and  that  young 
lad  has  grown  to  man's  estate,  he  may, 
with  iron  will,  pursue  the  pathway  of  his 
choice  uninfluenced  by  what  others  may 
say  or  do.  But  in  his  boyhood,  in  the 
family  group,  and  by  the  family  board, 
he  is  overmastered  and  compelled  to 
choose  to  sip  the  tempting  cup. 

It  is  not  enticement  but  compulsion  of 
which  I  am  now  speaking,  and  with  the 
reluctance  of  a  sympathetic  heart,  I  am 
insisting  that  as  the  ranchmen  drive  the 
bunnies  to  their  death,  so  by  the  family 
use  of  liquor  parents  are  driving  their 
children  to  drunkenness  and  ruin.  They 
are  not  commanding,  and  thus  compell- 

29 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


ing,  their  children  now  to  imbibe,  but 
their  table  customs  and  habits  exert  a 
determining  influence,  and  drive  their 
children  to  the  habitual  use  of  ardent 
spirits.  It  is  an  appalling  truth  that  as, 
in  the  rabbit  drive  the  fleeing  bunnies 
influence  others  also  to  flee,  so  in  the  boy 
drive  parents  and  older  members  of  the 
family  may  be  both  the  driven  and  the 
drivers ;  may  be  far  on  the  way  to  the  con- 
dition of  helpless  inebriety,  and  may  also 
be  active  and  efficient  agents  in  causing 
others  and  even  those  whom  they  love 
most  ardently  to  pursue  a  kindred  course. 
It  is  unspeakably  appalling  that  the 
hallowed  influences  of  family  and  home 
should  be  prostituted  to  the  iniquitous 
work  of  making  a  nation-wide  boy  drive 
by  which  each  year  a  hundred  thousand 
drunkards  are  forced  to  cruel  slaughter 
and  a  hundred  thousand  youth  are  started 

30 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


on  the  course  that  leads  directly  to  the 
drunkard's  doom,  and  that  in  this  stupen- 
dous tragedy  parents  become  the  execu- 
tioners of  their  own  children.  But  so  it 
is,  and  of  the  one  hundred  thousand  boys 
who,  during  each  year,  begin  the  inebri- 
ate's career,  a  very  large  per  cent  take 
their  first  step  in  that  direction  in  their 
own  homes  and  with  their  own  parents. 

Since  what  is  known  as  moderate  drink- 
ing is  the  only  path  that  leads  to  habitual 
inebriety,  the  home  and  family  use  of 
liquors  is  an  utterly  unpardonable  sin 
against  the  rising  generation.  It  is  piti- 
ful that  men  should  drive  the  furry  bun- 
nies to  their  savage  slaughter;  it  is  infin- 
itely infamous  that  parents  should  so  deal 
with  their  offspring  that  their  influence 
and  achievements  are  but  faintly  illus- 
trated by  the  activities  and  atrocities  of  a 
rabbit  drive. 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


SOCIAL  LIQUOR  DRINKING 

is  close  akin  to  the  family  use  of  intoxi- 
cating beverages  and  successfully  carries 
forward  the  harmful  work  begun  at 
home.  As  by  family  drinking,  kindred 
ties  are  made  the  bonds  that  bind  the  boy 
to  evil  habits,  so  by  the  social  cup  the  ties 
of  friendship  come  to  be  the  fetters  that 
hold  the  young  man  to  the  downward 
way.  The  habit  of  social  liquor  drinking 
is  driving  our  young  men  to  early  ruin. 
It  is  making  it  easy  for  them  to  do  wrong 
and  difficult  to  do  right.  The  fellowship 
of  kindred  spirits,  the  joys  and  delights 
of  social  intercourse,  the  delicate  but 
potential  influence  of  lovely  girlhood  and 
winsome  womanhood  are  accomplishing 
upon  our  coming  citizenship  results  much 
like  those  achieved  upon  the  frightened 

32 


A  CALIFORNIA  BABBIT  DRIVE 

rabbits  by  the  ranchmen's  threatening  tu- 
mult and  advance. 

Their  influence,  like  the  pressure  of  the 
tightening  and  tumultuous  human  cor- 
don conducting  the  destructive  rabbit 
drive,  is  all  upon  one  side  of  the  vast  liv- 
ing throng,  and  is, so  nearly  irresistible 
that  it  practically  compels  obedience.  If 
the  influence  of  the  powerful  cordon  of 
determined  men  upon  the  timid  and  de- 
fenseless bunnies  is  such  as  justifies  the 
name,  "Rabbit  Drive,"  then  I  am  speak- 
ing within  the  limits  of  moderation  when 
I  claim  that  social  liquor  drinking  is  part 
of  a  stupendous  boy  drive  that  pollutes 
the  nation's  honor  and  tarnishes  her  name. 

FESTIVE  LIQUOR  DRINKING. 

The  use  of  intoxicating  beverages  with 
meals  is  perhaps  the  most  successful  of 
all  agencies  now  engaged  in  filling  the 

33 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


boy  drive  bastile  with  its  degraded  vic- 
tims. Eating  and  drinking  are  necessary 
to  the  preservation  of  human  life,  and  to 
partake  of  food  and  beverage  as  associ- 
ated portions  of  a  simple  or  a  sumptuous 
meal  ever  has  been  the  custom  of  our  race. 
And  when  nature's  crystal  beverage, 
"born  of  the  clouds  and  filtered  through 
the  everlasting  hills,"  is  given  its  rightful 
place  with  pure  and  wholesome  food,  mil- 
lions of  every  age  will  move  from  their 
dining  halls  strengthened  and  inspired 
wisely  and  well  to  act  their  parts  in  life. 
And  into  a  rugged  manhood  the  sturdy 
boy  will  grow  apace,  by  each  repast  lifted 
to  a  higher  place  of  strength  and  courage 
and  unsullied  character  and  life.  When 
in  the  dining  hall  of  restaurant,  cafe  or 
hostelry,  or  at  the  sumptuous  banquet,  no 
beverage  that  intoxicates  is  found,  the 
festal  board  at  home  and  at  other  human 

34 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

habitats  ceases  to  be,  as  now  so  many  are, 
the  places  where  inebriates  begin  their 
downward  course.  But  when  the  crystal 
beverage  is  put  aside  and  at  the  festal 
board  an  alcoholic  drink  assumes  its  place, 
the  liquor-serving  sideboard  wherever 
found,  for  extent  of  harmful  work,  heads 
the  list  of  all  the  potent  influences  that 
drive  the  boys  to  ruin. 

Festive  liquor  drinking  includes  so 
much  of  family  and  social  liquor  drink- 
ing as  is  indulged  in  while  partaking  of 
a  meal.  But  the  chief  realms  of  its  oper- 
ations are  the  hotel  with  its  liquor-selling 
sideboard,  together  with  liquor-serving 
restaurants,  cafes  and  banquets. 

The  use  of  liquor  as  part  of  a  sumptu- 
ous meal  in  a  reputable  hotel  is  peculiarly 
fascinating.  At  a  table  well  supplied 
with  savory  food,  with  congenial  friends, 
and  with  winsome  women  as  companions, 

35 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


by  their  example  and  their  words  inviting 
them  to  drink,  millions  of  young  men 
have  taken  their  first  glass  of  liquor.  But 
those  who  have  been  reared  under  the  in- 
fluence of  family  liquor  drinking  readily 
fall  into  the  more  excessive  use  of  stimu- 
lating beverages  in  dining-rooms  where 
they  are  served. 

The  liquor  goblet,  which  in  a  dive  or 
low  saloon  would  seem  a  symbol  of  dis- 
grace, assumes  an  air  of  dignity  when 
placed  upon  the  dining-table  of  a  repu- 
table hotel,  and  the  more  respectable  the 
ihostelry,  the  more  magnificent  and  gor- 
geous its  equipment,  the  more  enticing 
does  that  liquor  goblet  seem  and  the  more 
readily  does  the  young  man  of  strict 
sobriety  yield  to  the  temptation  to  join 
his  boon  companions  in  the  festive  use  of 
liquor. 

36 


A  CALIFORNIA  EABBIT  DRIVE 


Countless  throngs  of  strong  young 
men,  whom  no  persuasion  could  have 
caused  to  cross  the  threshold  of  a  fash- 
ionable saloon,  have  fallen  ready  vic- 
tims to  the  fascination  of  festive  liquor 
drinking  in  a  fashionable  hotel.  The 
genial  fellowship  of  festive  liquor  drink- 
ing, the  presence  at  the  table  of  cherished 
kindred  spirits,  endows  with  power  well- 
nigh  resistless  this  most  alluring  and  en- 
ticing of  all  earthly  foes,  and  by  this  fes- 
tive liquor  drinking,  whether  in  the  fam- 
ily or  in  the  social  circle,  whether  in  the 
restaurant,  cafe,  hotel  or  banquet  hall, 
this  use  of  liquor  beverages  with  meals 
more  than  any  other  single  influence  is 
tightening  the  compelling  cordon  and 
forcing  on  to  their  ruin  the  nation's  boy- 
hood and  the  nation's  hope  and  strength. 

And  making  liquor  drinking  part  of  a 
repast,  whether  eaten  alone  or  in  company 

37 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


with  others,  tends  to  increase  by  large  per 
cents  the  quantity  of  liquor  drank.  Eat- 
ing causes  thirst  and  whets  the  appetite 
for  drink,  especially  if  the  beverage  taken 
tickles  the  palate  and  is  pleasing  to  the 
taste.  A  single  glass  of  liquor  taken  at 
a  public  bar  will  satisfy  a  man  who,  while 
he  eats  a  savory  and  sumptuous  meal,  will 
drink  and  drink  again  and  still  again,  fill- 
ing and  quaffing  off  more  glasses  of  the 
sparkling  beverage  than  he  could  be  in- 
duced to  take  without  the  food  of  which 
he  has  partaken  freely  while  he  drank. 
This  is  a  very  serious  truth  and  tells  the 
reason  why  so  many  men  are  borne  in 
drunken  stupor  from  the  festal  board  to 
their  apartments  or  their  homes.  Many 
such  are  never  known  to  be  intoxicated 
save  by  the  liquor  drank  with  meals. 

This  seeming  strange  but  well  attested 
fact  cannot  be  charged  to  the  greater 

38 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

strength  of  liquor  served  with  meals,  nor 
can  it  be  explained  by  claiming  that  mix- 
ing liquor  with  the  food  we  eat  increases 
its  intoxicating  power.  The  frequent 
turning  of  joyous  festal  scenes  to  baccha- 
nalian revels  and  drunken  orgies  is  due  to 
the  excessive  use  of  liquors  when  con- 
sumed with  food.  And  by  lingering  at 
the  liquor-serving  banquet  board,  brainy 
and  well-poised  men,  unconscious  of  the 
fact,  sink  to  a  maudlin  stupor,  and  to 
reach  their  homes  require  the  aid  of  men 
less  overcome  by  festal  liquor  drinking. 

The  frequency  of  such  events  with  men 
of  excellent  repute  and  of  habitual  sobri- 
ety is  startling  proof  that  festal  liquor 
drinking  from  its  very  nature  tends 
alarmingly  to  multiply  the  quantity  of 
liquor  which  otherwise  would  be  con- 
sumed. And  by  a  law  as  fixed  and  force- 
ful as  the  law  of  gravitation  men  who 

39 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


indulge  in  liquor  beverages  with  meals 
sink  to  a  lower  level  on  which  they  shrink 
not  to  be  found  among  the  patrons  of  the 
bar.  There  is  a  straight,  well-beaten  path 
leading  from  the  hotel  sideboard  to  the 
hotel  bar,  and  on  and  on  through  fashion- 
able saloons  to  dives  and  dens  of  vice  and 
the  boy  drive's  dismal  dungeon  and  what 
lies  beyond.  All  who  indulge  in  festal 
liquor  drinking  do  not  reach  those  lower 
levels,  but  the  tendency  is  in  that  direc- 
tion, and  few  there  are  who  once  walked 
proudly  in  the  ranks  of  worthy  manhood, 
and  subsequently  sank  to  lower  levels  of 
indulgence,  who  do  not  reach  that  degra- 
dation by  the  path  beginning  with  the 
moderate  use  of  alcoholic  drinks  with 
meals. 


CHAPTER  III. 


O  widespread  is  its  influ- 
ence and  so  harmful  is 
the  festive  use  of  liquor 
that  its  wreck  and  ruin 
of  our  race  is  but  feebly 
illustrated  by  the  most 
revolting  features  of  a  cruel  rabbit  drive. 
As  the  stalwart  ranchmen,  armed  with 
strong  and  heavy  clubs,  beating  the 
cragged  bushes  and  with  horns  and  pans 
and  deep-toned  drums  creating  pandemo- 
nium, drive  the  frightened  rabbits  to  their 
awful  doom,  so  the  hotel  sideboard  license 
and  all  the  features  of  the  festal  use  of 
rum  are  with  relentless  fury  driving  to 
their  dismal  destiny  millions  of  our  na- 
tion's choicest  spirits.  And  all  who  have 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

a  part  in  this  most  cunning  and  insidious 
feature  of  the  liquor  curse  are  adding  to 
the  harvest  and  the  horrors  of  the  barbar- 
ous boy  drive  with  its  infamous  acces- 
sories and  its  atrocities  of  cruel  slaughter. 

SALOON   LIQUOR  DRINKING 

holds  a  conspicuous  place  in  that  strong 
and  strenuous  cordon  of  agencies  that 
combine  to  drive  each  year  into  the  drunk- 
ard's prison  house,  and  into  that  deeper 
gloom  that  lies  beyond,  one  hundred  thou- 
sand erstwhile  choice  and  charming  boys. 
The  door  of  that  saloon  is  ever  open,  or, 
if  closed,  it  swings  easily  upon  its  hinges 
and  thus  invites  their  entrance.  Over  the 
threshold  of  that  lightly  swinging  door, 
into  the  brightness  of  that  crystal,  gilded 
hall,  a  countless  throng  is  passing,  well- 
taught  and  trained  in  family,  social  and 
festive  liquor  drinking.  And  because  that 

42 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


room  where  alcoholic  drink  is  sold  is  there, 
there  on  the  street,  there  by  the  edict  of 
the  government,  because  it  is  there  where 
it  has  bought  its  right  to  be  and  by  its 
glittering  gold  has  bribed  its  way  into  a 
mock  respectability — because  it's  there,  so 
near  and  so  convenient,  millions  turn  and 
enter  its  welcoming  doors  and  patronize 
its  bar  who,  without  the  silent  but  effect- 
ive invitation  of  its  presence,  would  pass 
onward  to  their  homes  or  to  their  daily 
tasks  without  a  thought  of  thirst. 

During  the  hours  of  public  worship  on 
a  Sabbath  day,  in  a  city  noted  for  its  so- 
called  liberal  policy,  I  sat  in  meditation 
by  my  hotel  window,  viewing  the  moving 
throngs  upon  the  street,  regretting  the 
unwelcome  fate  that  kept  me  from  the 
house  of  God.  Soon  the  number  on  the 
streets  diminished  and  only  those  were 
seen  who  were  not  seeking  sanctuary  priv- 

43 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


ileges.  As  I  sat  thus  wrapped  in  medita- 
tion, my  attention  was  attracted  to  a  stal- 
wart-built young  man  of  handsome  fea- 
tures moving  down  the  street  with  grace- 
ful dignity.  Instantly  my  heart  warmed 
toward  him,  for  since  my  years  of  inti- 
mate association  with  our  nation's  mighty 
men  I  thrill  with  interest  when  I  see  a 
young  American  whose  looks  and  move- 
ments seem  prophetic  of  a  future  of  dis- 
tinction. I  wondered  who  the  fine  young 
fellow  was  and  whether  he  would  grow 
into  the  sterling  ,citizen  he  seemed  by  na- 
ture destined  to  become.  With  eager  in- 
terest I  watched  his  every  movement  until 
at  length  across  the  street  from  my  hotel, 
and  opposite  the  window  where  I  sat,  he 
quickly  turned  and  entered  a  saloon. 

Before  my  shocked  and  saddened  heart 
resumed  its  wonted  movements,  I  saw 
two  more  superbly  built  young  men  f  ol- 

44 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


low  his  footsteps  and  disappear  beyond 
the  easy-swinging  door.  And  sitting  at 
that  hotel  window  during  the  two  mid- 
day hours  I  saw  and  counted  one  hundred 
finely  dressed  young  men  enter  that  gild- 
ed palace  and  withdraw.  That  they  en- 
tered the  saloon  to  patronize  its  bar  was 
proven  by  their  movements  as  they  has- 
tened on  their  journey  wiping  the  mois- 
ture from  their  lips. 

Not  all  who  passed  along  that  street 
those  midday  hours  entered  that  grog- 
shop door.  Some  who  walked  alone 
halted  not  to  quench  their  thirst  save  at 
the  nearby  flowing  fountain,  and  none 
who  walked  with  ladies  (as  many  did) 
entered  the  saloon  at  all.  These  were  my 
observations  in  a  rum-cursed  city  during 
the  two  midday  hours  of  a  Sabbath  day. 

The  presence  of  that  drinking  house 
right  there  upon  that  crowded  street  was 

45 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


in  itself  a  silent  invitation  to  enter  and 
indulge  in  liquor  drinking,  and  within 
two  short  hours  one  hundred  promising 
young  men  permitted  that  one  saloon  to 
join  its  efforts  with  those  of  other  mem- 
bers of  the  driving  cordon  and  to  force 
them  further  on  their  road  to  ruin.  They 
yielded  as  the  frightened  bunnies  yield  to 
the  tumult  of  the  rabbit  drivers,  and  the 
presence  of  the  open  drinking  house  with 
its  display  of  sparkling  and  enticing  bev- 
erages overcame  their  better  judgment 
and  their  nobler  inclination  and  drove 
them  to  the  choice  they  made. 

The  plate  glass  front  and  glittering 
trappings  of  that  saloon  added  enor- 
mously to  its  tempting  power  and  to  its 
contribution  to  the  combined  influence 
of  the  boy  drive  cordon  of  which  it  was 
a  strong,  effective  part. 

And   to   make   the   influence   of  that 

46 


A  CALIFORNIA  BABBIT  DRIVE 


saloon  compulsory,  or  as  nearly  so  as  pos- 
sible, its  infamous  achievement  during 
the  two  hours  of  that  Lord's  Day,  and 
during  all  the  hours  of  all  the  days,  was 
under  governmental  sanction,  protection 
and  encouragement.  Upon  the  wall  of 
that  saloon  there  hung,  where  all  who 
entered  could  behold  it,  a  general  govern- 
ment receipt  for  the  tribute  that  saloon 
had  paid  for  the  privilege  of  selling  sor- 
row and  the  consequent  assurance  of 
immunity  from  any  interference  by  the 
nation.  And  to  add  immensely  to  the 
wickedness  of  the  proceedings,  and  to  in- 
crease that  grogshop's  power  for  evil,  it 
was  under  the  full  protection  of  the  state 
and  city  that  that  harmful  work  was  car- 
ried on.  And  forty  more  saloons  within 
that  city,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  more 
within  the  nation,  were  taxing  their  every 
power  to  make  effective  the  nation's 

47 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


boy  drive  aided  by  civil  government,  the 
agency  which  God  ordained  to  safeguard 
every  human  interest  by  peremptorily 
forbidding  all  that  is  evil  in  its  nature 
and  harmful  in  its  influence. 

It  was  at  that  hotel  window,  with  my 
heart  throbs  beating  strong  and  fast  with 
righteous  indignation,  that  the  Spirit 
taught  me  the  lesson  I  am  now  endeavor- 
ing to  record,  of  the  startling  analogy 
between  a  rabbit  drive  and  the  move- 
ments that  are  forcing  our  loving  lads 
and  promising  young  men  by  millions  to 
their  dreadful  doom.  And  at  a  public 
meeting  in  that  city,  with  a  zeal  that 
knew  no  moderation,  I  proclaimed  that 
night  the  vision  I  had  seen. 

After  years  had  passed  I  sat  again  at 
that  same  hotel  window  during  the  hours 
of  public  worship,  and  though  the  street 
was  thronged  with  people,  not  one  foot- 

48 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

step  passed  the  threshold  of  that  popular 
saloon,  for  "Sunday  closing"  had  locked 
its  door  during  that  one  day  of  the  week. 
And  then  I  realized  more  fully  than  ever 
I  had  before  that  the  presence  of  the 
saloon  is  in  itself  a  strong  temptation, 
that  the  liquor-selling  bar  creates  the 
thirst  men  seek  in  vain  to  quench,  and 
that  the  good  results  of  closing  the  saloon 
for  one  brief  day  bear  witness  to  the  wis- 
dom of  closing  it  forever. 

OFFICIAL  LIQUOR  DRINKING 

aids  the  boy  drive  mightily  by  assuring 
talented  young  men  and  boys  that  the 
moderate  use  of  alcoholic  liquors  does  not 
lead  to  disrepute.  Drivers  of  rabbits  and 
drivers  of  boys  and  men  must  keep  their 
victims  confident  that  the  course  they  are 
pursuing  is  free  from  danger.  And  cer- 
tainly the  tippling  lad  is  safe  if  men  ad- 

49 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


dieted  to  their  cups  are  manifestly  held 
in  public  estimation,  and  are  deemed 
worthy  to  receive  the  honor  of  election  to 
a,  public  office.  And  these  assurances 
must  be  kept  before  the  youngster's  mind 
or  the  agencies  I  have  named — the  fam- 
ily, social,  festive,  saloon  and  official  use 
of  liquor  beverages — will  fail  to  drive 
him  to  the  drunkard's  dismal  dungeon. 

But  every  ballot  cast  for  men  known 
to  be  addicted  to  the  beverage  use  of  liq- 
uors, especially  for  those  known  to  be 
patrons  of  the  saloon,  tends  to  assure  the 
boy  that  liquor  drinking  is  not  harmful 
to  character  or  reputation.  And  this  as- 
surance tends  to  cause  him,  like  the 
unwise  bunnies  which  believe  that  all  is 
safe  before  them  and  rush  to  their  de- 
struction, to  yield  without  resistance  to 
the  pressure  of  the  contracting  cordon 
that  drives  him  on  to  ruin. 

50 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

What  an  array  of  influences  are  com- 
bined and  active  to  make  difficult  and 
doubtful  the  pathway  from  a  boyhood  of 
brightest  promise  to  an  exalted  noble 
manhood!  More  immense  and  stronger 
far  than  the  cordon  of  brawny  ranchmen 
who  are  united  in  the  purposes  and  the 
efforts  of  a  rabbit  drive — stronger  far 
and  more  effective  are  the  forces  now 
arrayed  against  the  boyhood  and  the 
brave  young  manhood  of  today. 

Hear  that  signal  for  the  movement  to 
begin  and  then  for  a  moment  listen  to 
the  answering  tumult  from  the  human 
cordon  as  it  starts  and  moves  like  an  ad- 
vancing army.  Now  look  beyond  that 
cordon  toward  the  east  and  see  that  count- 
less throng  of  frightened  bunnies  dash- 
ing through  the  stifling  dust  their  own 
fleet  feet  have  caused  to  rise,  and  remem- 
ber, though  innocent  of  any  conscious 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


bad  intent  or  act,  they  are  being  driven 
to  a  cruel  death.  Would  you  wish  to  join 
in  such  a  movement,  knowing  its  cruel, 
tragic  end?  Would  you  be  one  of  those 
who  voluntarily,  with  hard  and  heavy 
clubs,  beat  those  little  animals  to  death? 
I  see  you  start  and  shrink  from  such  a 
rude  suggestion. 

Yet,  that  is  but  a  feeble  illustration  of 
movements  now  and  constantly  in  prog- 
ress, not  to  drive  the  ravenous  rabbits  to 
destruction,  but  to  drive  our  own  dear 
boys  from  paths  of  rectitude  and  honor 
to  a  degradation  and  despair  more  hid- 
eous than  this  cruel  slaughter  of  the  rab- 
bits. That  rabbit  drive  suggests  the  boy 
drive,  and  if  your  heart  would  shrink 
from  joining  in  the  slaughter  of  the  bun- 
nies, are  you  willing  to  have  a  part  in  this 
most  shameful  and  barbaric  movement 
for  the  ruin  of  our  boys? 

52 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


This  is  not  the  swooping  down  upon 
us  of  the  savage  hordes  that  seek  to  cap- 
ture and  bear  away  our  offspring.  I 
would  that  truth  were  not  more  shocking 
than  such  a  supposition!  But  you  know 
it  is.  Yet  some  of  those  who  read  these 
lines,  each  word  of  which  burns  like  a  fire 
in  my  bones,  may  shrink  from  thinking 
of  their  own  sweet  boys  as  thus  assaulted 
and  endangered.  Ah,  reader,  the  powers 
of  darkness  grant  no  favors  and  the 
agencies  I  have  mentioned,  with  many 
more,  are  now  vigorous  and  active,  and 
no  indignant  rabbit  driver  ever  sought 
with  more  unyielding  purpose  to  slay  the 
harmful  bunnies  than  those  malignant 
agencies  strive  to  effect  the  ruin  of  our 
boys. 

SOME  RABBITS  WILL  NOT  DRIVE. 

However  wisely  planned  a  rabbit  drive 
may  be,  however  skillfully  conducted, 

53 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


there  are  always  some  bright  bunnies  that 
will  not  drive.  They  hear  the  tumult  and 
they  promptly  flee,  but  not  toward  the 
prison  or  the  extended  fences  that  would 
hedge  them  in  and  guide  their  fleeing 
footsteps  to  the  prison  door.  They  take 
no  chances,  but  they  flee  for  safety  and 
they  dash  between  the  advancing  cordon 
and  the  outmost  limit  of  the  extended 
fence,  and  they  slacken  not  their  speed 
until  beyond  all  danger  they  can  turn 
and  view  the  furious  tragedy  which 
by  prompt  and  vigorous  efforts  they 
escaped. 

It  is  not  the  fault  of  those  who  plan 
nor  those  who  execute  a  rabbit  drive 
that  some  of  their  intended  victims  are 
not  numbered  with  the  slain.  Nor  is 
it  due  to  greater  fleetness  of  some  bun- 
nies than  the  others  have.  It  is  due  to 
common  sense,  just  that  rare,  uncommon 

54 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

common-sense  which  even  rabbits  some- 
times have,  and  having  which  they  flee 
from  danger  and  to  certain  safety  ere  it 
is  too  late. 

THERE  ARE   BOYS   WHO   WILL   NOT   DRINK. 

Like  the  bunnies  blessed  with  common 
sense  they  take  no  chances.  By  total 
abstinence  they  make  sure  work.  On 
that  exalted  plane  of  total  abstinence  the 
sweep  of  the  extended  human  cordon  of 
harmful  influences  cannot  reach  them. 
Great  names  are  numbered  with  the  list 
of  those  who  never  drank,  and  while  their 
imbibing  comrades  were  driven  into 
wretchedness  and  ruin  they  rose  to  exal- 
tation and  renown.  It  is  not  because  the 
family,  social,  festive,  saloon  and  official 
use  of  liquor  are  not  vicious,  but  because 
upon  their  lofty  heights  of  total  absti- 
nence from  all  intoxicating  drinks  such 
noble  heroes  stand  strong  while  others, 

55 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


choosing   moderate   indulgence,    sink   to 
inebriety  and  shame. 

It  was  by  refraining  wholly  from  par- 
ticipation in  the  flight  toward  the  corral 
that  the  few  escaping  rabbits  secured  a 
place  of  safety.  Had  they  lingered  with 
their  fellow  bunnies  but  a  little  longer, 
the  cordon  would  have  so  encircled  them 
that  escape  would  have  been  difficult! 
And  the  laughing  lad  who  tarries  for  a 
season  to  enjoy  convivial  pleasures,  or 
who  on  rare  occasions  tastes  the  tempting 
beverage,  is  not  making  his  escape  nearly 
so  certain  as  is  the  lad  who  early  rises  to 
the  plane  of  total  and  perpetual  absti- 
nence from  all  use  of  the  beverage  that 
intoxicates.  Flight  is  the  youngster's 
only  hope,  a  prompt  and  rapid  flight 
from  all  the  agencies  that  would  lead  his 
feet  to  stray  into  the  path  of  danger. 

56 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


SOME  RABBITS  FIND  A  HIDING  PLACE. 

Within  a  friendly  cavern,  or  crevice  in 
a  protruding  rock,  or  where  erstwhile  a 
squirrel  or  an  owl  made  his  home,  some 
frightened  bunny  finds  a  shelter  from 
the  wrath  of  man.  Above  his  safe  re- 
treat the  noisy  rabbit  drive  moves  on, 
causing  the  earth  to  tremble  and  freight- 
ing all  the  atmosphere  with  terrific 
tumult.  He  trembles  as  he  feels  the 
earth  quiver  beneath  the  heavy  tread  of 
those  who  seek  his  life,  and  hears  in  part 
the  deafening  din  that  marks  the  passage 
of  the  human  cordon  just  above  his  hid- 
ing place.  But  he  is  safe  and  after  the 
darkness  of  the  night  conceals  his  move- 
ments he  comes  forth  to  freedom  and 
security. 

SOME  BOYS  ESCAPE. 

And  there  are  boys  who  find  a  place 
where  they  may  hide  from  all  the  perils 

57 


*%£!£&& 

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M?l 


•Tr 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


of  the  boy  drive.  Within  the  safe  enclos- 
ure of  some  temperance  band  or  some 
young  people's  church  society,  or  best  of 
all,  within  the  church  of  Christ  itself,  a 
hiding  place  is  found  more  quiet  and 
secure  than  any  burrow  in  the  earth  or 
cavern  in  the  flinty  rock.  The  tempest 
and  the  turmoil  of  the  ignominious  boy 
drive  may  sweep  furiously  on,  forcing 
millions  of  our  cherished  boys  like  vic- 
tims hastening  to  their  execution,  but  the 
Christian  lad  who  finds  within  the  church 
a  genial,  happy  home  is  safe  from  every 
hostile  influence  and  will  rise  to  noble 
manhood. 

I  spoke  one  Sabbath  morning  on  this 
theme  to  what  I  felt  to  be  a  sympathetic 
audience.  Among  the  number  who  greet- 
ed and  gladdened  me  with  words  of  com- 
mendation there  was  a  cheerful  lad  who 
said,  "Dr.  Chapman,  I  am  one  of  the 

58 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


rabbits  that  ran  into  a  hole."  With  deep 
emotion  I  replied,  "Tell  me  all  about  it, 
my  precious  boy."  "Oh,  I  joined  this 
church  last  Sunday,"  was  his  answer, 
"and  the  boy  drivers  cannot  get  me." 

Since  that  sunny  hour  I  have  carried  in 
my  heart  the  sweet  assurance  that  there 
is  security  for  every  boy  and  that  this 
story  of  the  California  rabbit  drive  is 
wonderfully  adapted  to  portray  a  truth 
which  all  should  know,  which  so  many 
seem  never  to  have  learned,  and  which  a 
child  can  easily  and  clearly  understand. 

HAPPY   BUNNIES. 

But  the  throng1  of  bunnies  that  have 
not  the  wisdom  exercised  by  those  that 
early  flee  and  thus  escape  the  carnival  of 
death,  nor  the  discretion  that  induces 
some  to  hide  in  the  caverns  till  the  storm 
is  past — that  numerous  company  that 

59 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


form  the  harvest  of  the  rabbit  drive- 
rush  rapidly  along  with  seeming  confi- 
dence that  safety  and  not  danger  is  be- 
fore them.  They  fear  the  cordon's  tu- 
mult, but  they  fear  not  the  corral.  Like 
frisky  lambs  in  spring  they  leap  and 
bound  along,  seemingly  as  light  of  heart 
as  they  are  fleet  of  foot.  The  fear  which 
caused  them  to  begin  their  flight  was 
only  that  cordon's  threatening  tumult. 
To  this  they  soon  became  accustomed 
and  their  spirits  seemed  elated  by  the 
rapid  increase  of  their  number.  When 
in  their  flight  they  reach  the  fence 
that  extends  its  lengthy  arms  to  greet 
them  they  fear  it  not,  but  gleefully 
skip  onward,  guided  by  its  compact 
wall  straight  to  the  corral  of  which 
in  fact  it  forms  a  needed  and  important 
part.  How  merrily  they  flee  along  the 
way  that  leads  to  their  destruction!  No 
60 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

rabbits  in  the  world  are  having  a  more 
joyous  time  than  those  who  by  their  most 
inveterate  foes  are  being  driven  to  their 
death. 

THEICE  HAPPY  BOYS. 

And  where  in  all  the  world  is  a  more 
jolly,  merry  crowd  than  is  that  group  of 
boys  and  men  fast  hastening  toward  and 
near  the  drunkard's  abject  bondage? 
They  scorn  the  thought  of  danger  and 
indignantly  repudiate  love's  warning  ad- 
monitions. No  one,  they  say,  is  more 
secure  than  those  who,  like  themselves, 
indulge  at  will,  "but  never  to  excess." 
"No  class  of  drinking  men  are  so  pro- 
nounced in  their  conviction  that  they  have 
no  need  of  reformation  as  the  men  who 
could  not,  if  they  would,  refrain  from 
liquor  drinking.  They  are  happy  in 
their  sense  of  freedom  and  like  the  silly 
bunnies  they  dance  into  their  dungeon. 

61 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


It  is  pitiful  and  sad  to  witness  the 
gleeful  frolics  and  absence  of  all  fear  of 
bunnies  in  a  rabbit  drive.  To  see  them 
skip  and  play  and  seem  so  gay  and 
happy,  and  then  to  think  how  rapidly 
they  are  rushing  to  unyielding  bondage, 
and  how  near  they  are  to  their  journey's 
tragic  end,  is  to  make  men's  hearts  grow 
sick  and  faint  even  if  they  must,  and  do, 
approve  this  seeming  savage  method  of 
protecting  human  industry  and  the  f  ruits 
of  human  toil. 

But  it  makes  the  heart  to  break  with 
grief  unspeakable  to  remember  that  each 
feature  of  the  rabbit  drive  is  reproduced 
by  the  barbaric  agencies,  proceedings  and 
results  connected  with  the  nation's  in- 
ebriety. At  no  point  of  this  analogy  is 
the  resemblance  between  the  fated  rabbits 
and  the  boys  and  men  addicted  to  their 
62 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


cups  so  close  and  clear  as  when  the  bun- 
nies, driven  to  their  death,  skip  gladly  on 
without  a  thought  of  danger,  when  but  a 
few  yards  intervene  between  them  and 
the  slaughter-pen  to  which  unconsciously 
they  are  being  harshly  driven. 

During  all  the  years  that  gladly  I  have 
given  to  the  work  of  winning  men  from 
drink,  few  things  have  so  profoundly 
grieved  my  heart  as  has  the  merry  sport 
of  boys  and  strong  young  men  when  be- 
ing urged  to  total  abstinence.  I  have 
wept  as  broken-hearted  women  weep,  as 
I  have  seen  most  promising  young  men 
manifestly  advancing  toward  a  condition 
of  helpless  bondage  to  their  cups  and 
laughing  at  the  efforts  of  beloved  friends 
to  win  them  to  sobriety. 

COUGH'S  FAMOUS  STORY. 

I  heard  the  eloquent  address  of  John 
B,  Gough  in  which  he  likened  such  un- 

63 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


wise  indulgers  to  a  rowboat  party  floating 
on  the  quiet  waters  of  Niagara  some 
miles  above  the  raging  rapids  which  pour 
their  boiling  waters  over  the  famous  falls. 
"Young  men,  ahoy!"  I  still  can  hear 
the  peerless  orator  repeat  in  tones  that 
when  I  heard  them  thrilled  me  through 
and  through,  and  I  can  feel  again  the 
throbbing  interest  aroused  within  my 
heart  as  in  his  own  peculiar  graphic  style 
he  told  the  story  of  those  boatmen  heed- 
lessly floating  with  increasing  speed  to- 
ward the  resistless  rapids,  laughing  at  all 
warning  voices,  and  then  their  wild,  ex- 
cited efforts  when  at  length  they  realized 
their  peril  and  sought  in  vain  to  stem  the 
raging  current,  or  to  reach  the  shore.  It 
was  indeed  a  fit  and  forceful  illustration 
of  the  fatal  folly  of  drifting  on  in  heed- 
less ecstasy  upon  the  glassy  current  that 

64 


sweeps  onward  to  the  roaring  cataract  of 
ruin. 

DANGER  DEEPENS  WITH  ADVANCE. 

A  rabbit's  chances  to  escape  rapidly 
diminish  as  he  flees  before  the  noisy 
human  cordon.  His  flight  from  his  pur- 
suers is  directly  toward  the  corral  and 
every  bound  he  makes  brings  him  nearer 
to  that  merciless  enclosure.  When  the 
rabbit  drive  began  there  were  great  gaps 
between  the  cordon  and  the  ends  of  the 
corral's  outreaching  fences.  It  was 
through  those  gaps  that,  when  the  drive 
began,  wiser  rabbits  shot,  as  from  a  can- 
non's mouth,  and  found  escape.  If  all  had 
dashed  for  freedom  then,  as  some  of  their 
number  did,  they  all  might  have  escaped, 
but  when  the  signal  rang  and  the  tre- 
mendous cordon  started  on  the  drive,  those 
gaps  through  which  escape  was  possible 

65 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


rapidly  grew  less  in  size  and  the  chances 
of  escape  grew  less  and  less  each  yard 
the  rabbits  fled  before  the  advancing 
cordon,  until  at  length  the  outmost  ends 
of  that  vast  human  crescent  touched  the 
outmost  ends  of  the  corral's  outstretching 
fences  and  by  the  circle  of  the  cordon, 
the  fence  and  the  strong  corral  the  bun- 
nies are  surrounded.  They  cannot  now 
escape  by  breaking  through  the  walls  of 
the  corral,  nor  through  the  fences  which 
are  so  constructed  as  to  keep  them  in. 
The  one  remaining  method  of  escape  is 
to  break  through  the  serried  column  of  the 
advancing  men.  But  now  that  gives  but 
little  promise  of  success.  The  cordon  now 
must  move  over  the  fan-shaped  space  be- 
tween the  fences,  and  as  it  moves  toward 
the  open  gate  of  the  corral,  it  constantly 
diminishes  the  space  in  which  the  rabbits 
are,  while  the  converging  fences  force  the 
66 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

shortening1  of  the  cordon,  which  makes 
more  compact  and  harder  to  break  through 
that  seemingly  invincible  wall  of  living 
men.  And  now  the  rabbits  realize  their 
peril  and  wildly  seek  a  passage  to  the 
freedom  they  have  lost. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


O  WRITER'S  studied 

words,  nor  stroke  of  skill- 
ful painter's  brush  can 
fittingly  portray  the  con- 
sternation that  prevails 
among  the  imprisoned 
bunnies  when  the  strong  and  compact 
walls  of  the  corral  and  fences  rudely  turn 
them  back,  and  in  vain  they  dash  against 
the  solid  ranks  of  strong,  determined  men. 
The  merry  twinkle  of  their  eyes  is  gone 
and  in  its  stead  a  glassy  brilliancy  of  fear 
is  seen.  They  rush  from  side  to  side  of 
the  enclosure  and  yielding  to  the  pressure 
of  the  advancing  human  wall  they  crowd 
more  nearly  to  the  open  door  of  the  cor- 
ral. In  vain  they  leap  and  bound  and 

68 


A  CALIFORNIA  BABBIT  DRIVE 

dash  against  each  other  and  against  the 
enclosing  walls.  Their  efforts  every- 
where are  unsuccessful.  They  are  strong 
and  agile  and  marvelously  fleet  of  foot, 
but  vain  are  all  their  efforts  to  escape. 

They  are  like  the  victim  of  the  boy 
drive  who,  when  he  comes  to  realize  his 
bondage,  is  powerless  to  escape.  When 
first  he  promises  to  put  away  his  cups  he 
thinks  he  has  an  easy  task,  but  soon  the 
raging  thirst  returns  and  his  will,  made 
feeble  by  his  long  indulgence,  yields  with 
scarce  the  semblance  of  a  struggle,  and  he 
finds  himself  again  in  the  clutches  of  his 
cruel  enemy.  It  is  not  always,  nor  most 
frequently,  that  men  who  thus  become  the 
slaves  of  rum  are  by  nature  weak  or  lack- 
ing in  the  traits  of  noble  manhood.  The 
boy  drive  gathers  in  its  strong  enclosure 
some  of  the  brightest  gems  of  human 
kind.  Men  of  highest  type,  with  native, 

69 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


rugged  strength  of  character,  brainy, 
brave,  magnetic,  have,  at  the  zenith  of 
their  years,  reached  that  station  in  the  boy 
drive  at  which  they  cannot  break  away 
from  their  degrading  bondage  to  alcoholic 
drinks.  Millions  of  such  men,  like  bun- 
nies in  the  drive,  when  near  the  gaping 
prison  gate,  have  vainly  fought  like 
heroes  to  escape  and  sadly  fallen  back 
only  to  renew  the  unsuccessful  struggle. 

GIANT  VICTIMS  OF  THE  BOY  DRIVE. 

During  my  years  of  public  life,  espe- 
cially when  serving  as  a  clerk  in  congress, 
I  knew  many  princely  men  rilling  exalted 
stations  in  the  nation,  but  utterly  unable 
to  control  their  appetite  for  drink.  They 
were  brave  when  in  the  fiercest  battle  and 
never  yielded  to  the  foe.  But  the  amber 
liquor,  when  it  came,  instantly  trans- 
formed them  into  craven  cowards  and 
70 


A  CALIFORNIA  BABBIT  DRIVE 

caused  them  ignominiously  to  strike  their 
colors.  They  were  not  drunkards.  They 
were  only  regular  partakers  of  intoxicat- 
ing beverages,  but  had  come  to  realize  that 
convivial  habits  had  woven  around  them 
fetters  which  they  could  not  break  nor 
cast  aside.  They  were  not  like  the  rab- 
bits in  the  strong-walled  prison  with  the 
door  made  fast.  They  had  not  yet  quite 
reached  that  point  in  the  barbaric  boy 
drive.  They  were  like  the  bunnies  out 
in  the  field,  but  near  the  termination  of 
the  drive,  and  realizing  with  alarm  the 
•bondage  they  were  in. 

ONE  OF  THE  MANY  MIGHTY  VICTIMS. 

) 

I  am  thinking  now  of  one  rare  man 
who  came  into  my  life  at  Washington 
during  those  eventful  years.  He  had 
been  a  general  of  distinction  in  the  Un- 
ion army  and  those  who  knew  him  on  the 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

fleld  declared,  "He  was  a  model  soldier." 
At  the  time  of  which  I  speak  he  was 
in  charge  of  a  vast  business  enterprise 
which  he  was  pushing  with  tremendous 
force.  During  our  acquaintance  I  had 
come  to  hold  him  in  very  high  esteem,  and 
it  was  with  very  great  delight  that  one 
morning  I  was  able  to  place  within  his 
hands  a  paper  duly  signed  which  he  had 
asked  me  to  secure  for  him,  if  possible, 
and  which  he  said  would  be  of  priceless 
value  to  him  in  his  work. 

He  seized  my  hands  with  grateful  joy, 
and  said,  "Young  man,  you  have  done 
me  a  great  service  and  I  am  more  than 
thankful  for  your  kindness.  Sometime 
I  hope  to  do  as  much  for  you.  Come  and 
take  a  drink  with  me."  I  gripped  his 
hand  with  vigor,  and  replied,  "General,  I 
thank  you  for  the  spirit  of  your  invita- 
tion, and  if  there  were  a  living  man  with 


A  CALIFORNIA  BABBIT  DRIVE 


whom  I  would  drink,  you  would  be  that 
man,  hut  such  a  man  does  not  exist  nor 
ever  did." 

"What,"  he  said,  "you  do  not  mean  to 
say  you  never  drink!"  "Never,"  was  my 
reply,  "and  God  helping  me  I  never  will." 
And  as  the  tears  came  to  his  eyes  and 
ran  down  his  bronzed  and  furrowed 
cheeks  he  clasped  my  hand  so  vigorously 
that  I  could  feel  the  quiver  of  his  stalwart 
frame  as  with  sobs  and  sighs  he  said, 
"Come,  my  dear  young  friend,  and  live 
with  me.  Be  my  confidant  and  assistant. 
I  will  give  you  a  royal  salary  and  keep 
you  with  me  day  and  night.  This  drink- 
ing habit  is  rushing  me  to  ruin.  Every 
morning  I  resolve  that  not  a  drop  shall 
pass  my  lips  that  day,  and  then  as  I  walk 
down  the  street,  the  friends  I  meet  will 
ask  me  in  to  drink  and  when  I  politely 
ask  to  be  excused  they  urge  their  invita- 

73 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

tion  and  take  me  by  the  arm,  and  before 
I  realize  what  is  being  done  the  morning 
pledge  is  broken  and  the  evening  finds  me 
far  the  worse  for  liquor.  If  I  had  with 
me  a  man  who  never  did  indulge,  and  who 
could  not  be  induced  to  break  his  pledge, 
he  could  aid  me  to  become  a  man  again." 

What  a  scene  was  that!  A  great  and 
mighty  man,  brainy  and  battle-scarred, 
with  intellect  and  will  and  strength  of 
personality  to  lead  an  army  of  one  hun- 
dred thousand  men  in  battle,  or  success- 
fully to  control  millions  of  capital  in  busi- 
ness enterprises — such  a  man  clinging  to 
a  man  of  less  than  thirty  summers  and 
weeping  like  a  child  as  he  entreats  that 
youngster  to  become  his  strength  in  battle 
with  the  foe  that  holds  him  in  a  galling 
bondage. 

That  man  was  in  the  boy  drive  and 
by  the  harmful  influences  of  private 

74 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

life,  and  of  the  army,  he  had  been  driven 
from  a  model  boyhood  to  the  helpless 
feebleness  his  words  so  graphically  de- 
scribed when  with  a  normal  growth  he 
would  have  been  at  the  very  prime  of  life. 
That  man  was  not  a  drunkard.  Those 
who  knew  him  well  did  not  regard  him  as 
in  serious  danger  of  ever  sinking  into 
helpless  and  disgraceful  inebriety.  They 
did  not  know  the  struggle  he  was  making 
to  break  through  the  cordon  which  vicious 
influences  had  cast  about  him.  He  had 
long  been  in  the  boy  drive,  and  as  fool- 
ish rabbits  yield  to  the  cordon  that  drives 
them  into  bondage  when  they  might 
dash  bravely  through  the  open  gaps  to 
freedom,  he  had  when  young  and  strong 
and  amply  able  to  resist  the  tempter, 
gone  tippling  onward  to  the  fixed,  un- 
yielding habit  which  now  enthralled  him. 
He  had  just  begun  to  realize  his  danger 

75 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINI" 


and  when  he  sought  to  lead  a  sober  life 
he  was  amazed  and  terrified  to  find  him- 
self so  weak  and  his  fetters  so  unyield- 
ing. I  could  not  help  him  as  he  asked 
me  to,  but  I  have  been  informed  that  he 
found  deliverance,  and  I  now  think  of 
him  as  one  among  the  millions  of  our 
brightest,  bravest  men  led  into  bondage 
by  ignoble  influences  and  kept  there  by 
their  friends. 

EFFORTS  TO  BREAK  THE  CORDON. 

During  those  years  in  Washington  I 
knew  officially  and  by  personal  acquaint- 
ance many  rare  and  gifted  men  who  were 
in  the  barbarous  boy  drive  and  were  far 
along,  some  near  the  gate  of  the  corral 
and  some  within  that  strong  enclosure. 
Senators  and  congressmen  were  daily  in 
their  seats  unfit  for  duty  and  sometimes 
maudlin  drunk  within  the  halls  of  legis- 

76 


lation  and  upon  the  streets.  With  the 
fond  hope  of  snatching  from  the  ranks 
of  the  fast  moving  boy  drive  some  of 
those  public  men,  a  congressional  total 
abstinence  movement  was  inaugurated 
with  the  Hon.  Henry  Wilson,  senator 
from  Massachusetts,  and  later  vice-presi- 
dent, a  man  of  God  as  well  as  a  great 
statesman,  at  its  head. 

No  words  can  ever  half  disclose  the  rev- 
elations of  that  effort  to  induce  our  na- 
tion's legislators  to  pledge  their  honor  to 
a  life  of  manly,  firm  sobriety.  It  was  like 
the  lifting  of  a  hazy  cloud  that  veiled 
from  view  the  field  on  which  the  rabbits 
in  a  drive,  when  near  their  prison  door, 
first  realized  their  danger  and  fiercely 
struggled  to  escape.  Men  in  whose  veins 
there  flowed  the  blood  of  noble  ancestors ; 
men  of  imperial  gifts  and  thorough  train- 
ing; men  endowed  by  nature  with  the 

77 


power  of  leadership  and  with  strong  wills 
that  ruled  the  counsels  where  mighty  men 
conferred  respecting  law  and  statecraft; 
men  of  heroic  stature  and  majestic  mien — 
such  men  as  these  were  of  the  number  who 
only  by  the  most  heroic  efforts  gained 
their  freedom.  Against  the  habits  of  a 
lifetime  they  contended  and  against  the 
strong,  unyielding  cordon  of  evil  influ- 
ences that  had  brought  them  to  their 
weakness  and  enthrallment. 

And  many  failed  like  the  procrastinat- 
ing bunnies,  not  from  the  lack  of  strong 
endeavor,  but  because  their  efforts  were 
too  late.  Those  great  temperance  rallies 
held  in  the  House  of  Representatives  that 
memorable  winter  caused  those  distin- 
guished men  to  realize  their  danger  and 
stimulated  their  purpose  and  endeavor  to 
reform.  Not  one  of  all  their  number  ever 
dreamed  how  far  advanced  he  was  along 

78 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

the  road  to  ruin,  nor  how  determined  were 
the  forces  that  had  urged  him  on  and 
were  holding  him  in  their  unyielding 
grasp.  I  could  tell  of  many  who  at  those 
public  meetings  told  the  thrilling  story  of 
their  struggles  to  escape  the  drunkard's 
doom  and  their  rapturous  joy  at  their 
deliverance.  It  is  not  quite  impossible, 
though  very  difficult,  for  bunnies  by  furi- 
ous, persevering  efforts  to  escape  when 
near  the 'gate  of  the  corral,  and  it  is  not 
quite  impossible,  though  very  difficult  and 
rare,  for  men  to  turn  and  lead  a  sober  life 
after  they  have  almost  reached  the  drunk- 
ard's realm  of  utter  helplessness. 

ESCAPE  NOW  IMPOSSIBLE. 

But  escape  is  quite  impossible  after  the 
gate  of  the  corral  is  tightly  closed  and 
all  the  bunnies  are  within  its  strong  en- 
closure. Those  terror-stricken  bunnies 

79 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


may  dash  for  freedom,  but  they  will  not 
find  it.  They  cannot  scale  the. wall  nor 
burrow  beneath  it  to  the  boundless  liberty 
from  which  they  have  been  driven. 

And  that  rabbit  drive  corral,  that  prison 
pen  from  which  escape  is  utterly  impos- 
sible, in  this  analogy  represents  the  realm 
of  utterly  helpless  inebriety.  And  as  no 
rabbit  can  escape  from  the  corral  after 
its  gate  is  closed,  so  when  a  man  becomes 
a  drunkard  his  fate  is  sealed.  No  human 
effort  or  human  help  can  restore  him  to 
sobriety  and  manliness.  He  may  make 
heroic  efforts  to  escape  and  faithful 
friends  may  by  their  sympathy,  encour- 
agement and  help  lift  him  to  a  higher 
plane,  but  the  strong  walls  of  the  dismal 
prison  into  which  he  came  are  all  around 
him,  and  no  human  ministration  can  so 
supplement  his  own  endeavor  as  to  restore 
him  to  his  lost  estate.  The  rabbit  drivers 

80 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

are  not  more  certain  of  the  bunnies  they 
have  driven  into  the  corral  than  are  the 
evil  forces  certain  of  the  one  whom  they 
have  driven  to  habitual  inebriety. 

A  HERCULES  IN  CHAINS. 

Among  the  mighty  men  who  were 
awakened  at  the  nation's  capital,  of  whom 
I  have  already  spoken,  I  heard  one  tell 
the  thrilling  story  of  the  desperate  strug- 
gle by  which  he  brought  himself  to  sign 
the  pledge  of  total  abstinence.  It  was  a 
story  such  as  having  heard,  one  never 
could  forget.  He  was  one  of  the  nation's 
greatest  rulers,  yet  that  night  he  told 
with  pathos  that  could  not  be  surpassed 
the  story  of  his  years  of  helpless  slavery 
to  drink,  and  then  with  rapturous  ecstasy 
he  thrilled  the  vast  assembly  when  he  an- 
nounced that,  having  signed  the  pledge, 
he  was  forever  free.  He  had  no  lack  of 

81 


human  help  and  he  made  as  brave  a  fight 
as  ever  marked  the  history  of  man.  But 
he  lost  the  battle,  went  back  to  the  entic- 
ing cup,  and  soon  was  at  his  journey's 
end.  He  had  lost  the  battle  long  before  I 
heard  him  make  that  eloquent  address. 
Great  and  mighty  as  he  was,  with  large 
and  fertile  brain  and  love  as  boundless  as 
is  human  need,  that  model  ruler  and  far- 
seeing  statesman  was  lost  when  vicious 
customs  and  pernicious  agencies  forced 
him  into  the  corral  and  closed  and  barred 
the  door.  For  years  he  lived  in  that  im- 
prisonment of  bondage  to  his  appetite  and 
still  was  loved,  as  few  are  loved,  for  his 
rare  and  noble  qualities,  and  he  was  hon- 
ored for  his  great  service  to  his  state  and 
nation,  but  in  the  boy  drive  he  had  reached 
the  point  where,  as  with  ancient  Israel, 
"There  was  no  remedy." 

82 


A  CALIFORNIA  BABBIT  DRIVE 


MIGHTY  TO  SAVE. 

I  am  not  forgetting  nor  doubting  the 
ability  of  One  who  "Is  able  to  save  to  the 
uttermost  them  that  draw  nigh  unto  God 
through  Him."  But  I  am  speaking  now 
of  human  possibilities  when  one  has 
reached  the  realm  of  slavery  to  drink. 
And  all  the  way  along  the  track  of  the 
accursed  boy  drive  that  noble-hearted  lad, 
that  soulful,  generous,  magnificent  young 
man,  that  brave  and  brainy  leader  had 
been  forced  by  vicious  customs  until  the 
evening  of  his  life  was  full  of  tragic 
struggle,  fears  and  futile  efforts,  and  at 
last  he  fell. 

GREAT  WAS  THE  FALL. 

He  fell  because  he  could  no  longer 
stand  environed  as  he  was  and  with  his 
heart's  blood  boiling  hot  with  quenchless 
thirst  for  rum.  He  fell  as  weak  as  in- 
fancy and  at  a  time  when  his  great  sinews 

83 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


should  have  had  the  strength  of  Hercules. 
He  fell  just  at  the  prime  of  life,  not 
when  the  flower  gave  promise  of  a  plen- 
teous fruitage,  but  when  the  rich,  ripe 
fruit  of  great  attainments  hung  in  gor- 
geous clusters  on  his  vine.  Not  when  the 
evening  shadows  pointed  eastward  did  his 
light  go  out,  but  when  the  noonday  sun 
had  just  moved  slightly  toward  the  west; 
when  at  his  best  he  should  have  been, 
grappling  with  and  solving  the  problems 
which  his  master  mind  by  long  and  thor- 
ough training,  and  by  years  of  faithful 
public  service,  should  have  found  but  sim- 
ple tasks.  He  fell  when  he  was  sorely 
needed  in  the  movement  for  a  broad  and 
liberal  reconstruction  of  a  nation  riven 
and  torn  by  war's  relentless  strife.  He 
fell  most  bitterly  lamented  by  a  people 
who  realized  their  need  of  his  wise  and 
skillful  leadership.  Tears  of  joy  leaped 

84 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

to  the  eyes  of  millions  when  the  good  tid- 
ings of  his  reformation  flashed  over  all 
the  nation,  but  down  the  cheek  of  Sorrow 
swiftly  flowed,  as  rivers  flow,  the  scalding 
tears  of  grief  when,  after  such  a  brief 
and  tragic  struggle,  the  great  victim  fell. 
He  fell  surrounded  by  a  million  men  who 
like  himself  had  come  to  be  helpless  vic- 
tims of  their  cups,  under  the  influence  of 
the  most  iniquitous  conditions,  customs 
and  collaborations  that  ever  cursed  the 
human  race.  And  when  he  fell  the  bloody 
boy  drive  bastile  in  which  he  fell  was  full 
to  overflowing  of  those  who  came  there 
much  as  he  had  come  and  whose  departure 
thence  was  like  his  own.  And  since  that 
day  when  he  went  down,  each  year,  a  hun- 
dred thousand  victims  have  been  driven 
into  that  enclosure  and  sacrificed  as  he  was 
sacrificed  by  the  resourceful  agencies  that 
brought  him  there. 

85 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


He  was  only  one  of  a  million  in  our 
land  who  during  that  one  year  were  in 
that  dark,  unyielding  prison;  one  of  a 
hundred  thousand  of  his  countrymen 
whom  Rum's  strong  minions  slew  that 
year.  I  have  mentioned  him  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  all  who  like  himself  were 
bound  in  fetters  and  were  slain,  or  are 
now  in  hopeless  bondage  and  will  perish 
in  their  chains. 

And  that  boy  drive  bastile  is  brimming 
full  today,  and  the  million  victims  now 
imprisoned  there  must  be  hastily  and 
rudely  thrust  into  eternity  to  make  room 
for  that  other  million  who  are  coming. 
Yes,  and  many  millions  are  now  in  that 
boy  drive,  and  all  on  the  way  to  the  con- 
dition of  hopeless  slavery  to  rum  which  I 
am  here  comparing  to  the  rabbit  drive 
corral. 


86 


CHAPTER  V. 


REVIEW  AND  REVERIE. 

ET  us  in  imagination  stand 
for  a  time  and  look  upon 
the  thousands  of  rabbits 
which  have  been  driven 
into  their  imprisonment. 
Some  are  too  dull  and 
stupid  to  be  conscious  of  the  peril  they  are 
in.  But  all  are  grimy  from  the  dust  they 
have  encountered  on  the  way.  Whence 
came  they  to  this  fateful  prison  pen? 
From  the  joyous  freedom  of  hill  and  val- 
ley they  have  come;  from  the  bright  and 
beauteous  plain  where  they  could  roam  at 
will  and  drink  in  copious  draughts  the 
pleasures  of  the  earth.  From  that  great 
field  of  life  and  from  its  glorious  liberty 

87 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

they  have  been  driven  to  this  cramped  and 
unyielding  prison  to  await  their  early 
execution. 

Now  let  us  in  imagination  look  upon 
that  million  of  living  men  whose  condition 
the  rabbit  drive  corral  so  vividly  and 
graphically  portrays.  It  is  not  a  thou- 
sand more  or  less  of  harmful  brutes  upon 
which  I  ask  you  now  to  look.  It  is  a  full 
round  million  of  living  men  in  our  own 
land  who  are  in  helpless,  hopeless  inebriety 
today.  They  are  now  within  the  boy 
drive's  strong  enclosure,  whose  doors  stand 
ever  open  for  the  entrance  of  all  comers, 
but  are  tightly  closed  and  locked  against 
escape.  Look  upon  them  in  their  wretched 
plight,  then  turn  away  and  weep  that  those 
once  bearing  God's  own  image  could  sink 
to  such  debasement.  Whence  came  they  to 
this  drunkard's  degradation?  Lift  your 
faces  and  with  the  eyes  of  thought  behold 


A  CALIFOKNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


the  millions  of  our  race  now  dwelling  in 
this  fairest  land  of  earth.  See  them, 
young  and  old,  in  bright  and  happy  homes, 
at  school,  at  college  or  as  tillers  of  the  soil. 
See  them  in  positions  of  authority  and  see 
them  in  the  sovereignty  of  ruling  citizens. 
But  stop  a  moment!  Ere  you  look  away, 
observe  how  many  of  these  millions  have 
their  faces  turned  toward  this  low,  de- 
graded realm  where  stands  the  drunkard's 
dungeon. 

See,  oh,  see,  what  millions  of  that  count- 
less multitude  are  constantly  approaching 
this  corral.  And  see,  oh,  do  not  fail  to 
see,  that  they  are  being  driven  to  this 
shame  and  degradation.  All  these  wait- 
ing here  their  early  tragic  doom  were 
erstwhile  roaming  glad  and  happy  in  the 
fields  of  freedom,  and  of  those  millions 
yonder,  many  ere  long  will  reach  this  pris- 
on house  of  wretchedness  and  sorrow. 

89 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

Whence  came  this  throng  of  helpless  vic- 
tims, do  you  ask?  No,  you  do  not  ask 
that  question  now.  You  have  seen,  per- 
haps more  clearly  than  before,  that  our 
nation's  boyhood  and  her  buoyant  young 
manhood  are  moving  like  a  countless  army 
to  fill  the  boy  drive's  ranks  and  to  fill  this 
dismal  dungeon. 

BUNNIES  WEEP  LIKE  BABIES. 

To  each  successful  rabbit  drive  there  is 
a  tragic  termination.  The  wild  and  ter- 
rifying tumult  of  the  moving  cordon 
ceases  when  the  rabbits  are  all  housed  in 
the  corral,  and  the  gate  is  closed  by  sturdy 
men  crowding  thickly  into  that  narrow  en- 
trance. But  when  the  men  leap  into  the 
corral  and  with  clubs  savagely  begin  the 
work  of  beating  them  to  death,  the  helpless 
bunnies,  like  ten  thousand  weeping  babies, 
cry  and  rend  the  air  with  wails  of  anguish 

90 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


until  sometimes  the  most  inveterate  rabbit 
hater  turns  deadly  pale  and,  trembling, 
quits  the  field.  Only  men  of  iron  nerve 
can  prosecute  this  cruel  slaughter,  and 
even  such  will  sometimes,  when  the  work  is 
done,  turn  instantly  and  in  silence  hasten 
to  their  homes.  Few  who  attend  a  rabbit 
drive  desire  ever  to  witness  one  again. 
Necessity  may  compel  them  more  than 
once  to  join  in  such  a  movement,  but  few, 
if  any,  will  for  sport  aid  or  attend  a  rab- 
bit drive  after  once  hearing  the  heart- 
piercing  shrieks  of  the  terrorized  and  help- 
less bunnies,  and  the  sickening  sound  of 
the  death-dealing  blows  during  the  prog- 
ress of  the  savage  slaughter.  A  gentle- 
man of  my  acquaintance,  when  recently 
relating  his  attendance  at  a  rabbit  drive, 
solemnly  and  with  much  emphasis  declared 
that  he  would  end  his  own  life  rather 
than  to  witness  such  a  scene  again. 

91 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


A    HELL    OF    HORRORS    IN    THE    BOY    DRIVE 
BASTILE. 

At  no  point  is  the  analogy  between  the 
rabbit  drive  and  the  ruin  of  our  manhood 
by  the  ravages  of  rum  more  accurate  than 
at  the  tragic  close.  And  as  I  write  this 
story  of  the  bunnies'  child-like  weeping  a 
poignant  pain  is  at  my  heart,  my  eyes  are 
filled  with  tears,  and  in  my  thoughts  I 
see  the  reader  shudder,  and  I  hear  the 
angry  verdict  that  the  rabbit  drive  is  too 
basely  brutal  for  this  age  of  tender  human 
love  and  sympathy. 

That  may  be  true,  but,  reader,  if  all 
the  cries  of  fear  and  suffering  of  the  vic- 
tims of  a  rabbit  drive  were  multiplied  by 
millions  they  would  not  equal  the  vol- 
ume of  sad  remorse  and  conscious  shame, 
of  crushing  disappointment  and  discour- 
agement, of  the  groans  and  moans  and 

92 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


smothering  sighs,  and  pleas  of  penitence 
and  prayer  to  God  for  help,  which  in  a 
single  hour  ascend  to  Heaven  from  the 
victims  of  the  boy  drive  who  have  reached 
the  bastile  of  imprisonment.  What  a 
very  hell  of  agony  must  burn  within  the 
soul  of  one,  well  born  and  bred,  conscious 
of  superior  natural  gifts,  with  native 
pride  and  high  ambition,  who  spends  the 
evening  of  his  day  of  life  in  such  a  place 
and  plight  and  there  with  fear  and  trem- 
bling closes  his  eyes  in  death. 

There  is  but  one  place  in  God's  known 
universe  where  there  is  greater  human 
anguish  than  in  that  region  of  despair 
from  which  the  victims  of  the  barbarous 
boy  drive  end  their  days  and  launch  into 
eternity. 

That  other  realm  is  not  the  hell  of  which 
we  have  been  wont  to  hear  from  child- 
hood's early  day.  I  am  not  casting  doubt 

93 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 

upon  the  teachings  that  proclaim  a  hell  of 
future  punishment  for  sin,  but  I  am 
claiming,  for  with  all  my  heart  I  hold  it 
true,  that  no  suffering  beyond  this  life 
can  possibly  exceed  the  pain  unspeakable 
of  that  earthly  realm,  the  drunkard's  liv- 
ing death,  from  which  all  hope  has  fled, 
and  the  anguish  of  remorse  runs  riot  in 
the  soul. 

I  do  not  wish  nor  need  to  lift  the  cur- 
tains that  conceal  eternity  to  find  a  hell 
whose  fires  are  hotter  and  more  constant 
than  the  flames  that  burn  within  the 
drunkard's  breast.  Within  the  drunk- 
ard's home,  within  the  loving,  loyal 
heart  of  his  doting  parents,  or  of  his  true 
and  faithful  wife  or  his  humiliated  son  or 
daughter  there  is  a  deep,  abiding  agony 
which  drunkards  never  know.  And  this 
also  is  part  of  the  abundant  harvest  of  the 
boy  drive. 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 
CLOSING   WORDS. 

With  the  readers  of  this  story  I  now 
crave  a  parting  word.  This  is  not  romance 
I  have  written,  but  simple,  solemn  truth. 
There  is  no  fiction,  fancy  or  imagination 
in  the  story  of  the  rabbit  drive,  nor  in  my 
record  of  events  mentioned  in  this  story. 
The  story  as  I  have  told  it  is  of  necessity 
less  graphic,  less  dramatic,  less  terrible 
than  the  events  of  which  I  write.  I  am 
more  than  sorry  that  my  application  of 
the  story  is  amply  justified.  The  most 
revolting  feature  of  our  Western  life  is 
the  closing  scene  of  an  enthusiastic  and 
successful  rabbit  drive.  But  at  its  worst 
it  is  not  even  an  imperfect  illustration  of 
the  operations  by  which  millions  of  our 
citizens  are  driven  to  destruction.  Reader, 
this  is  unspeakably  iniquitous.  There  is 
no  language  that  can  fittingly  denounce 

95 


PART1CEPS  CRIMINIS 


the  cruel  crime  of  the  social  and  civic 
infamy  which  is  now  bringing  to  drunken 
degradation  millions  of  the  people  of  this 
land. 

Some  things  there  are  respecting  which 
there  can  not  be  a  doubt.  We  know  that 
every  rabbit  that  is  slain  within  the  rabbit 
drive  corral  was  driven  there  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  being  slain.  We  know  that 
he  reached  that  dismal  destiny  by  yielding 
to  the  men  who  drove  him  to  that  slaugh- 
ter. We  know  that  every  degraded 
drunkard  was  once  an  innocent  child,  free 
from  all  the  consequences  of  a  personal 
use  of  liquors.  We  know  that  each  one 
of  those  degraded  drunkards,  of  whom 
we  have  at  least  one  million  now  within 
our  land,  was  brought  from  that  innocent 
childhood  to  his  present  sad  condition  by 
the  influences  I  have  named.  We  know 
that  family,  social,  festive,  saloon  and  offi- 

96 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 

cial  liquor  drinking  are  as  effective  in 
bringing  innocent  boys  to  the  condition  of 
helpless  inebriety  as  are  the  rabbit  drivers 
efficient  in  their  work  of  driving  the  timid 
bunnies  into  the  corral.  We  know  that  if 
total  abstinence  from  all  intoxicants  pre- 
vailed in  the  lives  of  our  American  boys 
not  one  of  them  would  ever  reach  the 
drunkard's  sad  estate.  We  honor  the  boy 
who,  like  the  escaping  bunny  that  will  not 
drive,  will  not  be  coaxed  nor  flattered  nov 
in  any  way  induced  to  use  intoxicating 
drink. 

ENDEAVOR  TO  REALIZE  WHAT  YOU  KNOW 
TO  BE  TRUE. 

We  are  familiar  with  the  story  of  the 
ravages  of  rum,  but  we  do  not  bring  our- 
selves to  realize  its  unspeakable  iniquity. 
Knowing  that  this  greedy  monster  gulps 
his  millions  at  his  meals  and  that  our  ten- 

97 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


der  children  are  the  diet  on  which  he  most 
delights  to  feed,  we,  by  the  law,  enlarge 
his  mouth  and  maw,  and  when  we  see  his 
ravenous  jaws  close  on  the  precious  mor- 
sels we  have  helped  to  bring  to  his  repast, 
we  do  not  recognize  their  blood  upon  our 
hands,  nor  the  deeper  and  indelible  crim- 
son on  our  souls.  But  painful  though  it 
be,  permit  this  story  of  the  rabbit  drive 
to  turn  its  revealing  light  upon  your  in- 
most being.  See  in  the  eyes  of  your 
imagination  twenty  thousand  bunnies 
being  driven  to  the  corral  for  slaughter. 
Now  close  your  eyes  of  thought  and  open 
them  again  upon  the  same  scene  and  for 
bunnies  substitute  bright,  buoyant  boys, 
your  own  bright  boys,  now  being  driven 
to  ignominious  death.  Close  your  eyes 
again  and  open  them  upon  the  rabbit  drive 
corral  when  the  bunnies  are  piercing  the 
atmosphere  with  shrieks  of  fear  and  suf- 
98 


be 

W  ~rt 


O  - 
Pi    U 


B  P 
>  o 


o  o 

^    H 
C/3 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


faring  as  they  are  being  clubbed  to  deatH. 
Now  substitute  boys  for  bunnies  and  you 
will  have  a  picture  of  the  truth  I  am  by 
this  story  seeking  to  aid  you  to  realize, 
that  you  may  wash  your  hands  and  gar- 
ments from  the  blood  of  those  whom  rum 
destroys,  and  may  aid  to  drive  the  boy 
drive  from  our  land  and  from  the  world, 

GOVERNMENTAL    COMPLICITY    THE    CHIEF 
CRIME. 

The  existence  of  the  beverage  liquor 
traffic  under  the  sanction  of  government 
and  law  is  an  infamy  as  black  as  can  be 
found  in  the  infernal  regions. 

It  is  the  highest  expression  of  Chris- 
tian patriotism,  loyally  and  frankly  to 
confess  our  nation's  sins  and  earnestly  to 
seek  her  deliverance  from  them.  It  is  sin- 
ful disobedience  to  God  not  to  do  so.  His 
own  hand  established  and  maintains  civil 
government  as  His  agent  to  safeguard 


99 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


the  interests  of  His  creatures  by  protect- 
ing them  to  the  fullest  possible  extent 
from  all  that  would  do  them  harm.  Civil 
government  is  declared  to  be  "The  minis- 
ter of  God  to  thee  for  good."  Its  minis- 
try is  as  sacred  as  is  that  of  any  other  min- 
isters of  God.  '"Kings  shall  be  thy  nurs- 
ing fathers  and  their  queens  thy  nursing 
mothers,"  is  God's  promise  to  the  children 
of  men.  And  when  instead  of  "nurs- 
ing," as  God  intended  and  as  He  com- 
manded, civil  government  delivers  its  sub- 
jects to  the  most  heartless  slaughter  and 
aids  to  make  that  slaughter  effective,  the 
lowest  level  of  earthly  infamy  has  thus 
been  reached. 

THE    PARAMOUNT    FUNCTION    OF   GOVERN- 
MENT. 

To  each   one  of  the  twenty  million 
lads  now  in  the  nation's  boy  drive  the 
100 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


operations  of  civil  government  should  be 
like  the  loving,  gentle  and  helpful  minis- 
trations of  a  devoted,  faithful  nurse. 
The  future  manhood  of  the  nation  is  in 
that  tremendous  throng.  The  great  and 
good  of  coming  years  are  all  there,  and 
others,  whose  possibilities  are  as  great  as 
theirs,  will  be  of  the  number  driven  to 
the  barbarous  slaughter. 

OUR  FUTURE   PRESIDENTS. 

The  next  president  of  the  United 
States,  whoever  he  may  be,  is  now  a  full- 
grown,  mature  man.  But  forty  years 
from  today  the  scepter  of  presidential 
authority  will  be  in  the  hands  of  one  who 
is  now  a  little  boy.  No  one,  <not  even  him- 
self nor  his  nearest  friend,  knows  of  his 
exalted  destiny.  But  somewhere — God 
knows  where — that  gifted,  susceptible  lad 
is  the  recipient  of  those  ministrations  by  / 

c 


mm 


*>< 


'•'\w.<«';Kc30Bi 
V^^^Wf 

a.         —-  --3^ 


PAKTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


which  in  this  country  we  build  up  our 
native  sons  into  sturdy,  stalwart  men 
capable  of  being  leaders  and  rulers  of  a 
great  and  mighty  nation. 

That  future  chief  magistrate  of  the 
nation  is  now  in  the  boy  drive.  He  is 
one  of  the  twenty  million  lads  between  the 
ages  of  five  and  nineteen  whom  the  infer- 
nal forces  are  seeking  by  all  their  tight- 
ening cordons  to  force  into  the  corral  of 
helplessness  and  woe  now  full  to  overflow- 
ing of  those  who  were  the  promising  lads 
of  other  years.  And  between  the  pres- 
ent time  and  the  period  of  his  inaugura- 
tion there  are  eight  or  ten  future  presi- 
dents of  the  nation.  And  all  of  them, 
who  are  still  in  early  life,  are  with  him 
in  the  boy  drive,  but  in  spite  of  its  con- 
tracting cordons  of  powerful  influences 
they  will  all  reach  the  highest  station  of 
earth,  the  presidency  of  the  United  States. 
102 


A  MAGNIFICENT    ACHIEVEMENT. 

No  achievement  of  our  nation  is  more 
superb  than  the  making  of  great  and 
noble  men,  the  building  up  of  our  frolic- 
some boyhood  into  a  forceful,  heroic  man- 
hood. We  revere  and  loyally  follow  the 
staunch  and  worthy  chieftain  whom  we 
have  from  infancy  among  our  citizenship 
reared  up  and  called  to  the  presidency. 
He  did  not  reach  his  exalted  station  by 
inheritance.  We  made  him  our  chief 
ruler.  We  made  him  fit  to  rule  our 
nation,  and  by  our  own  voluntary  ac- 
tion we  made  him  president  of  the 
United  States.  It  is  a  magnificent  achieve- 
ment, and  as  we  turn  from  the  present  to 
the  future  we  see  a  procession  of  men  and 
boys  steadily  advancing  to  the  White 
House,  which  in  due  time  each  one  will 
reach.  Eight  or  more  presidents  within 
the  next  four  decades! 
103 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


AN  APPALLING  FACT. 

But  during  that  same  period  of  time 
while  we  are  making  eight  American  pres- 
idents the  forces  that  are  now  conducting 
the  American  boy  drive,  if  permitted  to 
continue  their  infamous  work,  will  securely 
enclose  in  the  drunkard's  corral  not  less 
than  four  million  of  the  nation's  manhood. 
Eight  presidents  and  four  million  drunk- 
ards the  product  of  forty  years  of  the 
twentieth  century  in  the  most  enlightened 
nation  of  earth!  And  many  of  those 
four  million  victims  of  existing  conditions 
and  activities  are  today  as  bright  and 
buoyant,  as  promising  and  hopeful  as 
their  associates  who  will  reach  the  presi- 
dential chair  while  they  sink  to  a  dismal 
doom — not  lured  nor  enticed — but  driven 
to  despair  and  death.  And  on  other  hands 
than  their  own  their  precious  blood  is 
found. 

104 


A  CALIFORNIA  RABBIT  DRIVE 


BLOOD-GUILTINESS 

PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS  is  the  term  which 
the  law  applies  to  one  who  is  "an  acces- 
sory in  a  crime,"  one  who  aids  another  in 
a  criminal  act.  However  serious  or  re- 
volting the  crime  may  be,  the  guilt  of  the 
accessory,  the  Particeps  Criminis,  is  by 
the  law  regarded  as  equal  to  the  guilt  of 
the  principal  who  commits  the  crime. 

All  this  applies  as  fully  to  the  crime 
of  drunkard-making  as  to  any  other 
criminal  act.  The  colossal  crime  of  earth, 
the  master  iniquity  of  our  race,  is  human 
degradation  by  strong  drink.  In  its  re- 
volting features,  in  its  heartless  cruelty, 
in  the  world-wide  sweep  of  its  desolation 
and  ruin,  in  its  gloating  glory  at  the 
anguish  of  its  innocent  victims,  and  in  all 
that  goes  to  make  up  an  unspeakable 
infamy  it  is  the  peerless  criminal  of  earth. 
105 


PARTICEPS  CRIMINIS 


And  they  are  Particeps  Criminis  in  this 
vilest  villainy  who  by  the  methods  men- 
tioned in  this  book  and  otherwise  contrib- 
ute to  the  effectiveness  of  the  brutal  Boy 
U  Drive  now  in  progress  in  the  world. 

WITHOUT   STAIN   OR  BLAME. 

It  was  the  humble  but  confident  claim 
of  the  great  Apostle  Paul  that  he  was 
"pure  from  the  blood  of  all  men."  There 
are  many  to  whom  this  loving  message  is 
sent  who  cannot  rightfully  claim  that  per- 
sonal purity  of  which  Paul  spoke.  There 
are  some,  I  fear,  to  whom  the  Master  says, 
"The  voice  of  thy  brother's  blood  crieth 
unto  me  from  the  ground." 

Let  us  at  once  and  forever  have  done 
with  that  inexcusable  and  monstrous  in- 
iquity which  calls  for  and  justifies  this 
divine  condemnation.  Let  us  cease  to  be 
Particeps  Criminis  in  earth's  greatest 
106 


infamy.    "What  profit  is  it  if  we  slay  our 
brother  and  conceal  his  blood." 

Let  us  by  placing  this  "Czolgosz  of 
Trade  and  Commerce"  under  the  ban  of 
civil  government  give  to  our  nation  "A 
Stainless  Flag,"  and  by  refraining  from 
all  intoxicating  beverages  let  us  aid  our 
people  to  become  and  to  remain 

"PURE  FROM  THE  BLOOD  OF  ALL  MEN." 


THE  END. 


THERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FAOLrjY 


A    001316263    1 


